


stuck with you

by kyunsclub



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: !!domestic minchan deserves better, 7/7: the lines are from lion king if it wasn’t clear, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Bang Chan Has a Soft Spot for Minho’s giggle, Bang Chan is Whipped, Board Games, Disney Movies, Domestic Fluff, Fear of Heights, Fluff, Insomniac Bang Chan, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Minho's Cats - Freeform, Movie Night, Neighbors to Friends to Lovers, Pining, Playdates and Friendly Gatherings, Slow Burn, am i plotting a whole fic because of minho&his heights fears??maybe, minchan rise !!!, sorry–90’s disney movie are my favs, they finally kiss!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-04-07 15:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19088248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyunsclub/pseuds/kyunsclub
Summary: chan found himself stuck in such a small space with his next door neighbor, minho.and he didn’t mind it one bit.





	1. stuck with you

**Author's Note:**

> yellow wood shocked me _so much?? like wow??their mind??_ ,
> 
> that whole shake of the elevator on the teaser though was unexpected, undesired and a lot for me and my overprotective minho’s mom heart; i was literally dying internally for his heights phobia since the first second of it even it wasn’t happening in irl !!, so this au hit me like a streak.
> 
> stan stray kids.

 

 

after his long week, chan didn’t expect his day to conclude this way, getting stuck in such a small space with his loud laughing and sarcastic neighbor, minho. but if life give him such a chance he didn’t mind it one bit.

 

chan  just wants to get home fast so he could crash on his bed and sleeps until his body woke up by itself. he had spent the whole day carrying boxes and more boxes in the music shop. his muscles are sore and tense, all he wants is to take a long warm shower before crashing out to bed.  
  
he walks in his building and clicks the button to call the elevator. after his exhaustive workday he isn’t on the mood of climbing nine floors by heart to reaches his corridor. he takes the hood of his dark plain sweatshirt off his head and covers his mouth with one hand as he yawned. the elevator finally opens its doors with a tingle sound and he walks in, clicking the button to his floor. 

the moment the door it’s closing he sees a hand sticking in and stopping them from closing, revealing one of his neighbors, a boy of his age wearing a light pink sweatshirt with blue ripped skinny jeans, soft light brown hair and big eyes on display, smiling a little at him as a greet.  

 

 

  
chan feels his breath get hitched on his throat and leans his back on the elevator's freezing wall as the boy walks in and stands still next to chan since their floor it’s the exactly same. 

chan knows his name is lee minho. the boy had moved in a couple of years after chan. right next to his dorm. 

he is nice. he is always smiling at everyone, always trying not to be a nuisance for anyone, and always trying to help as much as he can; chan often sees him helping their elder neighbor with her groceries and other stuff, they seemed close. chan also knows how quiet, delicate and distant he seem to be with his sharps and tough face features but instead how energetic and clumsy he actually is.

 

minho more than often knocked on his door asking for some help with whatever broken thing that time appeared in his apartment (even though chan believed he was more than capable to fix it by himself), but chan was usually known among the neighbors as a smart boy who looks for quick solutions, gaining the name of  _mr. fixed it_  on his corridor so it wasn’t that deep, chan didn’t mind.   
  
minho also knocked on his door asking for or even just to return his cats soonie, doongie or dori’s home that often got into chan's apartment through his open window, or the fire escape stair both shared that the cats love to walked in, and every time minho ran into chan, inside or outside their building, he always made the attempt to have a simply and carefree conversation with him.

 

he also has a loud laugh, although his voice isn’t loud on principle and is more of the softer and quieter side, warm and low and more comfortable than creamy coffee; his laughter is scandalous, charming,  like a warm breezes that hits on the early mornings of spring. chan would recognize it miles away.  
  
even though chan tries to find things to dislike about the boy: him being talkative, much of himself, very friendly or even his laugh, chan couldn't dislike him. no one could dislike that boy.   
  
even if the two of them didn't consider themselves as close friends, minho always found a way to creeps into his quiet and monotone life and disturbs it but chan finds himself liking it.

unfortunately, chan is the kind of person that falls hard and fast, and he already knows how it goes, he recognizes it familiar feel even more so when his heart suddenly quickens and skips a beat at the simply thought of him. chan curses himself because he barely knows minho, but he knows himself enough to not even try to deny how absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking he thinks minho is.  
  
  
minho looks at him and smiles.  
  
  
"you arrived late today, you look tired”, he says and chan nods, watching the small screen with red lights numbers that indicated the floor they currently are as a distraction from minho’s glance.  
  


"yeah, i got stuck late at work”, he rubbers with both hands his tired face and takes a deep breath, the tiredness kicking in quickly. "what about you?", he looks at him and minho is still looking in his direction.  
  


"just came back from a dinner with some friends. have you eaten?", chan shooks his head slightly, his hand trying to massage a little his own sore neck, and notices minho's shoulders slumping down a bit. "you should take better care of yourself, why didn't you take any food with you?", he looks honestly worried and chan catches himself smiling a little at the boy next to him.  
  


"honestly, i really thought i would leave in time. i'll eat as soon as i get out of the shower", he says and minho nods a bit, smile back again on his face.   


"take a good rest tonight, you look like you need it."  
  


"yeah, thanks”, they keep smiling politely at each other until the elevator jumps a little, stopping and lights turning off completely before the emergency ones turned on.

   
"what happened?!", minho asks in panicked voice and chan clicks multiple times the emergency button.

   
"i think we're stuck”, chan replies matter-of-factly, too calm for someone in their situation. minho suddenly looks over at him with brown doe eyes open wide in surprise and fast breathing.

  
"we're stuck?!  _how?!_ _"_ , he nearly yells and chan really tries not to laugh at his reaction. he takes his phone out and dials a number before putting the phone near his ear.

   
"the building is kind of old so i'm not that surprised. calm down, we'll be out in a bit", chan says.

   
"how can you be so calm?!", the boy yells again leaning his back on the cold wall, trying to calm down his heart. starting a rhythmic breath in and out calmly and steady, hands places all over his chest. chan raises an eyebrow at the scene and looks at him.

   
"are you claustrophobic or something?".

   
"or something. i just don't want to die in a old elevator, even though i would be dying with a hot guy.", he answers fast and rambling almost mumbling the last part, eyes close, and the tips of chan's ears start to tingle, and he feels a pinky flush spreading in his cheeks and neck at minho's comment.   
  
  
before he could replies an eloquence, the person on the other side of the line finally picks up.

   
"mr. kim? it's chan from the apartment 9D. i'm with minho and we're stuck on the elevator”, he explains nd minho observes him in detail, finally looking calmer and feeling himself recovering slowly.

  
_"i'm already taking care of it but it's going to take a few hours, i'm sorry, chan",_  the older man, the landlord, says and chan smiles coarsely even though he couldn't see it.

   
"it's fine. just get us out of here please, mr. kim".  
  


_"yes, of course”,_  he says and ends the call, chan sighs and put his phone back on his pocket. he looks over again, trying to read minho's more relaxed semblance.

 

  
"so? what did mr. kim say?"

   
"it's going to take a few hours", minho fakes cried at the news and sits down on the floor.

   
" _hours?_  we're going to die in here”, he overreacts dramatically and chan chuckles, leaning back on the wall with his arms cross in front of his chest. minho takes a short breath before looking up at chan, smirking just a bit, giving a look almost triumphal. he has an expression, the kind one where something important, and not frequent has happened in front his eyes.

   
"you should smile more often, besides making you a lot less scary and intimidating...", he smiles a little at chan's expectant expression before continuing. "you have a beautiful smile”, he finish and chan bites his lips, his tongue running over his bottom lip while trying not to smile too widely at minho’s comment.

   
"thank you."

   
"you know, you should compliment me back, i just did it to you. it’s the rule", he declares, no shame at all in sight, and chan laughs while sitting down on the cold floor in the opposite side of minho.

   
"you really are a unique person", he says and minho smiles, nodding.

   
"you're not the first person telling me that."

   
"okay, um... you have a very funny laugh”, chan concludes and minho raises one of his eyebrows.

   
"i don't know it that's a good thing or not... did you just insult me?” minho burst into a surprised sound that is half laughter half snort. a small pfft kind of noise that makes him scrunch up his nose in the most adorable way. all of the sudden, feeling self-conscious about his laugh.

   
"no, it's a good thing! i swear! trust me, you’ll know when i’m trying to insult you”, chan says cheekily, laughing just a bit at his own remark. “it's really contagious, people can't stop their smiles when they hear you laugh. i like it”, he admit smiling gently at him and minho smiles back while he feels his cheeks burning up. he covers his mouth shyly when he realizes chan keeps looking at him, but that gesture only makes chan smile grows bigger.

  
"thank you, i always thought it was kind of annoying."

   
"far from it."

 

 

 

 

-  


 

 

  


for the next half hour, they just chat about nothing in particular.

chan listens to every quiet word minho says, the stories minho shared about his daily routine and chan listens and listens, absorbing the natural huskiness of his voice and it’s low grooves that chan want to wrap himself in. 

and he thought it was a really nice change from him lying alone in the dark of his dorm, tangled in his blankets as he spent hours trying to fall asleep and getting nowhere. 

chan crawls in minho’s direction and scoots down closer to him and crosses his legs, biting his lips out of habit and facing him again after a timing silence.

 

"how's soonie and the kittens? i haven't seen her in a while”, he asks and minho smile melts into one of adoration, contently at the mention of his cat.  
  
  
"she's great! i bet doongie and dori are destroying my room as we speak.", both boys burst out into laughter.

   
"how was your dinner?", chan asks again when he notices minho’s looking around more often than not, panic starting to kick in again on the boy.

   
"dinner?"

   
"yeah, with your friends."

   
 _"_ oh! _",_  he almost yells and it takes minho a second, and then his face lights up, eyes sparkling. "it was really good but they made me pay for the whole meat. jeongin really thinks i’m his atm."

   
"are you sure it wasn't you who offered to pay?", chan inquiries suspiciously, raising slightly an eyebrow and minho tries not to laugh.

   
"absolutely not”, they laugh. chan is stunned by minho’s crescent eyes crinkling in innocent humor and full lips framing perfect teeth. showing a perfect smile. perfect. he is perfect.  

 

  


 

-  


  


 

 

the moment laugh ceased, the lights also turned off completely, returning the seriousness of the situation they were into drastically. 

chan hears minho screaming before feeling a tight grip on his arm. the emergency lights turns on again quickly after, illuminating the small space in which they’re sitting with a dimmer white lightning and minho is holding chan for dear life, a scared and terrified look portrait on his face.  
  


   
"what was that?", he whispers.

   
"they're probably fixing the elevator, don't worry”, chan pats minho's hands in a sign to let him know he could let go now but minho only grabs his arm tighter and leans his head on chan's shoulder. he is practically hugging his arm.

 

  
chan is just a little uncomfortable with that, he doesn’t like people touching him that much. he is a  _touchy and clingy_ person but he’s accustomed to share his clingy-self only with close friends and family and not with his next door neighbor. 

he likes to be the person who gives cuddles and not much the other way around. he likes his personal space, sometimes even claiming a lot of it when his friend hyunjin is around. 

but as minho wraps himself up on chan’s arms a little tighter, for a moment he looks so small, so vulnerable. and chan can barely control his urge to reach out and place a comforting hand on his shoulder. to pull him in a warm hug and let him know that everything is alright. so he does it. and they just continue sitting there silently and he doesn’t mind minho’s touch that much as he notices how the boy is starting to relax and calm down by his side.   
  
he finds himself liking to be the person whom comforts minho only by his presence.  
  
  
"it’s official, we're definitely going to die in here. what if the elevator actually falls?!", minho raises his voice a high-pitch and looks at chan with wide sparkling eyes.

   
"the elevator isn’t going to fall, don't freak out”, chan whispers, hoping that minho doesn’t break and alter more than it is, immediately putting a hand on his shoulders with his free arm as he felt minho's grip tightening, sighing.

   
"reaching this point, it’s definitely a bad time to be saying how terribly afraid of heights i am, right?", minho also softly whispers and chan smiles a little. minho is cute, really cute on this way. he looks adorable and much more approachable than his appearance let him shown daily and chan feels a wave of heat rushing to his face, breath hitching a little on his lungs when he realizes how close minho is to him, even if it’s barely more than a second;  _minho's face was very close to his face._ immediately he makes himself look away and takes a deep breath.

   
"i'm too young to die, i didn't even do half of the things i want to do”, minho keeps on and chan giggles fully and softly, almost unwillingly disturbing the moment only by focus his ear on the thumping sounds of his heartbeat growing faster the more time minho is beside him.

  
  
even if at the start they didn’t consider themselves as close friends the more extensive is the time they spend together the more familiarity and affinity grows. 

chan did not imagine that he would know as many aspects and details of minho's life by riding a decomposed elevator together, he’s feeling kinda special and he hopes his heart isn’t that obvious and notorious. he’s not good at acting and he’s feeling overdramatic and slightly self-conscious the more he think it off. he really hopes it is not.

 

 “actually, yeah, it’s kinda late now haha… but it’s fine _. we’re fine minho_ ” he looks down at him and minho’s grin grows this time and the smallest of crinkles form at the edges of his eyes, he knows minho’s sparkly eyes won’t be forgettable for a long while.

  

 

 

 

-  


 

 

 

  

they’ve been in the elevator for a few more hours. they spent the time talking and getting to know more about each other, after a while of them chatting minho looks tired and his sleepy blink captivate chan. he finds himself wanting to measure minho’s dark and long eyelashes and stroke his eyelids closed, he would sure look even more beautiful on his sleep. 

chan tries to keep those thoughts down to zero as minho is still on his side, grabbing his arm for steadiness. chan spends most of the time calming minho down after the boy keep insisting  _they are going to die down there._

  
chan starts to dozing off to sleep, the huge hunger he felt before too weak against the tiredness, when the bright lights of the elevator turn on and the box finally starts moving. minho is already sleeping on his shoulder. chan shakes him awake and gets up as soon as minho let him.

   
"the elevator is moving", he informs him and minho rises up slowly, too sleepy to give any reaction or process the information.

   
"we're getting out now?", he asks with a husky voice and chan tries not to smile too much. chan looks at the somnolent appearance of him and his mind floods with thoughts. imagining a different total scenario with that image, it makes him think about how much domestic all those hours seems to been but chan likes it.

   
"yeah”.

   
"oh, too bad. i was enjoying your company", he says and chan looks at him with wide surprised eyes. not expecting that reply at all and if minho notices his eyes on him, he doesn’t give any signs of it. 

 

before chan could say anything to answer him the doors finally opens on the ninth floor revealing their landlord waiting for them in the company of two firemen.  


  
"are you okay? it took more time than we expected”, a fireman asks them as the boys walk out of the elevator, minho leans his front body to the wall and the landlord shakes his head smiling amusedly at him and his antics.

   
"yes, thank you so much", chan tells them.

   
"awesome to hear that, then our work here is done, have a nice night”, chan shakes hands with both firemen, minho happily thanking them behind him before they left with the landlord.

   
chan looks at minho when the boy sighed deeply.

   
"i'm never riding that elevator again.", chan chuckles and smiles uncontrollably, like he usually does around minho, it’s easy when he is around.  they walked side by side to their apartments since they live right next to each other.

 

   

 

-  


 

  
minho takes his key out of his pocket and unlock his door, doongie walks out quickly, brushing and scrubbing herself against his legs, and minho lifts her up like a child to stop her from running away after the entrance. still holding the cat in his arms he gives her a soft kiss in her head.

   
"sorry i'm late pretty", he says.

   
"it's doongie!", chan says excitedly and jogs to them, minho hands the cat to chan with a smile on his lips. chan hugs her and gives her a few kisses before putting her down. "hey missy, don't you like me anymore? you haven't broke into my house lately."

   
"oh… about that, i didn't let her, it's my fault.", minho tells him and chan pouts slightly to that statement, looking at him.

   
"why? you don't like me?".

   
minho giggles incredibly softly. "i heard your conversation with mrs. park the other day, you told her you've been working a lot and you needed to rest. i didn't want her to bother you", minho admits kind of embarrassed and chan’s smile return with that.

   
"you didn't have to, i totally love her company a lot, and the others ones too”, he says and minho smiles some more. "i'm keeping her tonight, you own me that!”, chan jokes.

   
"what? noo! i've been missing her all day, i almost die right there! and my kittens almost run out of the lovely human’s hand that nourishes them and cuddles them!", he whines dramatically and chan laughs out loud, and minho chuckles after him.

   
chan picks doongie up and hugs her tightly, even more close to him, and minho rolls his eyes playfully.  
  
  
"fine, okay, maybe i own you a little tiny bit…want to stay for a while? we both could use some company, and soonie and dori are back there, i don't mind”, he says about him and the kitties and chan looks at him a little surprised.

   
"you're inviting me in?", minho nods a little embarrassed about the proposition, but not less firmly. "yeah,sure!", chan answers way too excited for his usually calm personality, he adores those cats.

   
minho opens the door a bit more for him to come in. chan walks right after, followed by minho behind and he quickly makes himself at home. those hours in the elevator together gives him the confidence to do it. he sits down on the couch with doongie and soon after, soonie and dori comes out from the kitchen, and land themselves on his thighs. 

  
minho closes the door behind him. "hey, i just need to take a quick shower first after all that bustle and i’ll be right here."

   
"sure. go, don't mind me", chan assures him with a little smile and minho makes his way to his bedroom before heading to the bathroom.

 

  
he tries to take a quick shower but his sore muscles wanted more time to relax, all those hours confined in that reduced space exhausted him. his phobia was on a high pick, reaching almost to the maximum, if not for the company of chan. he really own him lots.

he didn't want to leave chan by himself bored in the living room and when he left the bathroom wearing a black sweatshirt and grey shorts and with his black hair still slightly wet, he walked in remembering the talk of before where it was agreed that chan had not yet dined.

  

 

 

   

 

-  


 

 

 

 

in the past, chan probably would have complained about his butt hurting from sitting on the floor for too long on a day, but it’s bearable now on the floor of minho’s living room with soonie plopped on his arms, fast asleep as chan petted her. 

being seated like that was hurting him now, legs cramping up, but he didn’t want to wake soonie up either and it doesn’t hurt that minho is sitting across him, cooing over doongie and dori sitting on his lap, so he sat and watched. 

he thinks that even if he could pull stars out of the sky and arrange them into words, there wouldn’t be an adequate phrase to capture how adorable and beautiful and cherry and everything minho looks like now. he loses on his thoughts for a moment and is rescue from his trance by a hustle and bustle on the next room, noticing how minho is cooking in his small kitchen.

 

"you're cooking? oh, you didn't have to...", he approaches minho as he scoots a still asleep soonie off his arms and gently lays her down on the comfy grey couch on the right center of the room. chan keeps a small smile on his lips as his cheeks turned into a shade of a little tainted red.

   
"you didn't eat anything yet, so i'm just doing something quick”, minho says, smiling back right at him and chan blushes some more. he hears the tinkle of dori's collar when she jumped to the diner’s table and approached to her, minho’s little cat walks away to his owner the moment chan tries to pet her. he feels betrayed.

   
"do you need any help?", he asks after the rejection.

   
"it’s okay, just sit down. it's almost done”, minho replies and chan sits down in the table, watching the boy cooking. he’s always in motion. everything minho does seems so easy, the smallest of movements look so graceful. like he is dancing along to a song that only he can hear. small steps, softly nodding their head along to the beat, even now as he manages not to trip over dori. 

   
minho suddenly turns to look at him and he probably noticed how chan was staring at him. but he's smiling softly. "just a warning, i'm one of the best chefs around here, and this meal it’s amazing!, so i’m not taking responsibility if after this one, every dish you’ll eat later wouldn’t taste this great, but well, you’ll manage to survive without me", they laugh together. "thought i'm sorry it isn’t a proper dinner", minho whispers that last, lowering dori off the table and smiles. it’s shyer than his smiles have been of before and he looks even more adorable.

  
"don't worry about it. you're cooking for me at this ungodly hour, i couldn’t complain", minho laughs loud and chan smiles at him. he keeps watching him as he finishes his cooking, both talking about nonsense to pass the time. 

 

 

chan catches himself thinking how badly wants more moments like this: minho cooking for him after a hard day at work and vice-versa, resting on the couch with three kitties up them, wanting to come home and being welcomed by minho's smile and jokes to lift his mood up.

he fights the urge to hug minho from behind as the boy's back faced him while cooking. chan doesn’t realise it yet but since minho moved in a few years ago, he has grown a special care for him.  
  
  
chan really doesn’t mind minho burst into his quiet life to disturbing it.  
  


  _he_ _actually wishes for it._

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> am i talking again about minchan's love and minho’s cats on a +3k fic? hell yeah.
> 
> sincerely, i can’t spell lee minho without soonie, doongie and dori on it.
> 
> (i’m soft for him and his ending and flaming love for his cats, they save him and i’m all mushy inside for that fact. sue me.)


	2. like the sun that goes to sleep at night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if minho is sunshine during the day, he's something else at night. chan can't quite figure out what it is. he's still loud and just short of rowdy, still full of smiles and laughter, but it's different beyond comparison. it's late night but minho's still there, bright and lively.

 

 

the summer of his thirteenth birthday chan went to sign up for bass lessons at the music school near his house, but it was more popular than years before, it seems everyone wanted to be the next flea from red hot chilli peppers that summer in sidney. so chan had to settle for a back row seat at the much less crowded guitar lessons. guitar was always more popular than bass, but apparently not that time. his mother really didn't see the difference of both instruments, she told him that it was all a matter of luck and there was really no need to be all sour about it.  
  


chan just wanted to be like the others. it was not a mere fascination with the exotic and the unknown. the pleasure he found in this new hobby was largely due to the inability to see bands of music in action with his own eyes. understanding the notes of the scores of different songs was like seeing a vivid art from another world.  
  

the guitar his mother had bought him wasn’t too heavy, nor too big, it was perfectly shaped although it already been seen tons of versions of guitars, and it didn’t stood out like a sore thumb between rows and rows of big and heavies basses. it was too much like him for chan not to fall in love.

 

the summer of his fourteenth birthday chan dyed his hair blonde for the first time. with clumsy hands he combed the dye between his locks and waited the longest forty minutes of his life. he joined a band of three, and they were generally too loud and drunk on the hype of becoming real rule breakers. his decision to savor the ghosts of his dancing imagination from books and photos was like being in love with someone he had never seen.

the hype didn't last that long and nor did the band, but while he dyed his hair back to black before school started chan couldn't wait to do it all over again.

 

this is how his journey began surrounded by acoustic notes and melodies together with long musical scores that served as a map to guide his odyssey into pursue his dream , that’s how he booked a job on a vintage music shop near his new neighborhood right the moment he moved out to seoul.  

 

 

 

-  
  


 

 

 

it's nine thirty when chan finally stumbles out of his house, dark grey apron in hand to head to his morning shift at the music shop. his old rusty nissan was waiting for him, he had gotten it second hand from a friend's family who had been more than happy to get rid of the poor old thing. chan likes it, though, it has that lived feeling that makes it look like a piece of someone's history rather than just a car. changbin would say that 'it's just old and you are just making excuses for your poor ass', but he honestly likes it.  
  
it takes him fifteen minutes to get to his job and he finds his usual parking slot occupied by a huge truck. scoffing and cursing at the idiot who buys such a huge wasted-space car he rounds the block and leaves his car near the seven-eleven he sometimes visits to get end-of-the-month instant ramen and other such things that have his mother’s hair rise.  
  
after safely locking his car he half jogs back to his workplace and halfway decides to stop to get a coffee at the corner café his colleague always recommends. he is dangerously on the verge of being late, but he also feels like dropping dead asleep, so his perfect attendance will have to suffer just this once.

the smell of coffee hits him like a truck and it's already enough for him to feel a little bit more alive than he felt five seconds ago. he gets in line and debates if he should get a double shot cappuccino or go for the usual americano, when someone taps his shoulder.

 

“good morning neighbor!,” minho is greeting him with a small wave and an affable big smile, piping hot coffee already in hand.   
  


that was the first time chan saw the boy since the faithful decomposed elevator and chan’s rush-hour feelings accident five nights ago. and it wasn’t like chan was planning his schedule meticulously beforehand so as not to run into minho when he left his dorm, trying to not deal with those so new feelings and thoughts that he recognizes its already too familiar even more so when his heart suddenly quickens and skips a beat at the simply thought of minho. not at all.   
  


“good morning minho,” chan greets, a bit too asleep for minho's tastes, as he rolls his eyes and pokes chan's arm playfully. “hey, rise and shine! you’re on the way to work?”   
  


chan nods, his brows forming a little frown. “i think i’m really going to collapse without caffeine.”  
  


minho can't help but laugh a little at that. “you come here often?”  
  


“no, it's my first time, actually.”  
  


“oh, they have the best coffee for at least five blocks around.” minho's phone goes off then and chan really isn't one to nose in other people business, he is more of the people who respect the privacy and personal spaces but the way minho's face scrunches right away makes him wonder who exactly this jisung person is.  
  


“i have to go, stuff to do, bye!”, minho waves again and then he is gone, leaving behind a hint of vanilla and ginger from his cologne and the jingle of the bell above the door. chan is pining, but he already knows how it goes. chan sighs looking back to the menu. americano it is. 

 

 

 

-  
  


  
  


 

“so, how are things going?” chan is pushing a cart heavy with boxes and boxes of cd’s, lp’s, and dvd’s he is supposed to shelf, while changbin drags his feet around being generally useless. it's changbin's lunch break and he couldn't let the opportunity to annoy chan  pass.  
  


“good, i'm trying to get a new routine.” q for queen, he muses under his breath.  
  


“nice. and have you heard from... ” changbin has this thing where he is really really smart, but can't bother remembering the names of people he finds totally uninteresting.  
  
  
“bambam, no, i didn't, he vanished and asked me not to contact him.”  
  
  
“oh, so a clean cut,” changbin is clutching an ice-frappuccino, that is mostly melted ice by now, that chan can't really stomach even in the summer, much less in the middle of winter, but changbin sips it with gusto.  
  


“it’s okay now, there wasn't much to cut to begin with,” he shrugs and changbin starts talking about his last music project and his incompetent manager and chan only half listens.

 

it has always been chan and changbin, since the two of them were little. one would scrape his knee and the other would cry in his stead. it was the kind of friendship that made wrong decisions look genius and the consequences bearable. chan even thought of being in love with changbin, but it was middle school and chan was in love with love and changbin was just a convenient choice.

so when he told changbin about how one day the front door slammed open and his, back then, boyfriend had declared, rather solemnly that 'he was not going to wait around forever for chan to get a grip on his life and waste his prime on him', changbin was right away on his side preventing him to linger too long in self-pity, trying to poured all his frustration out and to forgot about it after a long shower and a quiet night of sleep lullied by the words changbin recited all night that maybe being dumped by that idiot was the beginning of a brighter chapter.

 

 

“so, the neighbor’s cat start to walk in on my dorm again. i found them sleeping on the couch this morning,” chan blurts, in a lull of the conversation.  
  


“the guy next door? minho, right?”, chan nods. “well, maybe the arrival of him and his cats to the condo was more than perfect to entertain your boring life, now you’re too whipped for those cats.” chan wholeheartedly agrees.  
  
  
by the time of the five days has pass chan didn’t have the heart to tell changbin about his recent new feelings towards minho, capable for fear that what he would tell him or that what he would advice knowing how chan is usually around love and how cliché everything it sounds while being in the same sentence as him.

chan knows that changbin wants the best for him but sometimes his best friend would honestly sell him for only a penny to the highest bidder.  
  


changbin pokes at the almost melted ice with his straw and sighs. “i have to go back to work, you up for something later?”  
  


“sure, zero drinking though, i have to be up early tomorrow.”

 

“great! i'll text you later”, chan gives him a thumbs up and goes back to his shelving.

  
  
  


 

 

in the end they go for meat, changbin saying he needs energy since this project is sucking up his soul right out his lungs. dramatic as always. they share a cocktail and chan lets him complain, not having much of that to do himself. they part ways around midnight, when changbin has to run to catch his bus, even though chan offered him a ride.  
  


he walked in his building and ride the elevator clicking the button to his floor, and can’t help but sum up how in the beginning of this week his dynamics changed a hundred percent and all because of one person who happens to be his right next door neighbor and has all his thoughts occupied. when he reached his door, keys dangling from his index finger, he notices the light of the next-door apartment still on. chan can't help but wonder.  
  


he swaps his work clothes with a pair of sweats and a large, worn out and cosy sweater and decides it's time to go to sleep. too tired for more than crashing out to bed. but then again chan and nights doesn’t happen to be on terms, as he lie alone in the dark of his dorm, tangled in his blankets spending hours trying to fall asleep and getting nowhere. today is one of those days.   
  


reaching almost two thirty in the morning chan gives up and decides it’s a good time for take a fresh air out on the balcony. he opens the glass door and takes a step outside, a gist of cold hits him right in the nose and he is about to just go back inside when a soft voice startles him.  
  


“fancy seeing you here.”  
  


minho is out on his own balcony, feet dangling between the bars and a lollipop lazily sitting between his lips. he has glasses on, dark rimmed and fashionably like, a jean jacket that didn’t seem warm enough to be fine on such a cold night, and a pile of papers on his hands. chan closed up the glass door behind him and make his way on minho’s direction. 

   
“yeah, i needed a breather.” 

  
minho then smiles like a lazy cat and carefully takes the lollipop stick between his fingers. minho is a weird creature, by his appearance he seems quiet, delicate and distant with his sharps and tough face features always dressed in copious amount of fabric, like his body can't retain even a tiny whiny bit of body heat. sometimes chan sees him going out wearing makeup, lot of rings, fancy blue light fur coats, or totally different styles out of nowhere. his loud laugh, obnoxious personality and how, usually, he’s always running late everywhere as he doesn't seem to understand the need of people to let their lives be ruled by a clock, fascinates him.  
  


most of days chan finds him incredibly attractive tonight. the kind of attractive he'd want to unravel with the tip of his fingers, dismount, discover and put back together just to see what's inside, how all comes together into one lee minho.

  
his narrow, sharp nose had an air of helplessness to others who witness it and the cocoon of his lips opened and closed with the smooth curve of a fruit.  even when he was silent, his lips parted in a tenuous movement. the least wrinkle, or crack would have ruined them, but their perfection humanized them maximally. his long eyelashes framed his eyes in a line almost without torsion and perpendicular to his nose, his face with a skin like porcelain barely pink, completed that impression of beauty.  
  


“hey. would you like some lollies and chocolates?, sugar is the best way to welcome a rough night.”  
  


chan is about to politely say it's no problem, but minho has already disappeared inside, coming back two minutes later with a whole bag of lollipops’ candies and a couple of chocolate bars.  
  


“here,” he says, and he doesn't have to lean over much to give chan a bit of all.  
  


chan accepts it, even though he'd rather have some well-deserved nap than diabetes on a bag. “thank you minho.”  
  


“sure, anytime”. minho says happily. “next time you’re awake at night, come find me.”  
  


“i’m always up,” chan mutters, half under his breath, but minho seems to catch it anyway. “what?”  
  


minho gives him an odd look. “what do you mean you’re always up?”  
  


“at night,” chan says. “i can’t really sleep. i’m always awake.” he laughs awkwardly when minho continues to just study him. “what?”  
  


“i didn’t know that,” minho says before he turns back to the papers in his hands. “not even when you’re really really tired?”  
  


“not at all. it’s okay though, i’m kind of used to it now.”

  
“that’s sad,” minho says, but chan just shrugs in reply while he begins to unwrap one of the many candies. they eat their lollies and chocolates in silence for a while, then there is a little ruffling coming from minho's side and a very fluffy tail peaks out in the balcony. doongie strolls out and sways between the railings of the balcony below where minho was standing, until she notices another presence outside and effortlessly jumps out to the next balcony, scrubbing her head on chan’s legs asking for attention and petting.  
  


“hey baby girl, you’re also up? it seems we’re all big nighters here,” chan cooed at her. he has such a soft spot for minho’s cats. he’s really whipped like changbin says.  
  


“chan do you want tea?, i was about to make some.”   
  


chan shouldn't, really he needs to go to bed even if he can’t stick and eye all night, he needs to be up early to work, he needs to sleep because a whole afternoon with changbin at the gym is bad, but half of it is worse because changbin crams in the meanest exercises routine ever. 

and it didn’t feels right to bother minho at such a late hours of the night, but his mere presence results him soothing, calming almost intoxicating. he didn’t want to be this selfish. even so, chan founds himself nodding while petting doongie on his arms and minho goes inside again to take out another cup along with a spoon and the sugar.  
  


after a couple of minutes minho hands chan a hot mug of tea. the cup was and old chinese porcelain, with a beautiful arabesque pattern in all blue and gold. chan takes a sip of tea and feels drowsy. the sleepiness is only heightened by the nice warmness the tea spreads in his chest and the fact doongie is all curled up on his lap. he would like to ask what minho is doing up so late, if he is usually a night howl or something is keeping him awake.

 

“so”, minho starts asking, “you needed a breather earlier huh?”

 

chan has a nervous air on him at that question, something jittery that puts even doongie in his lap on edge. chan looks thoroughly ashamed, cheeks turning pinker by the second under minho's gaze as he could see right through him and by a fact unrevealed chan’s deepest secrets.  
  


“it’s a long story, i had a lengthy day,” chan says in lieu of an explanation, adding a minute laugh after a beat of silence.   
  


“late night story time with bang chan then,” minho teases and chan finds himself oddly at ease, relaxing in the air of familiarity that comes from minho. gone is the nervousness he had glimpsed before, as minho rests his head on his forearms. he looks like a lazy cat, such as doongie, back from a day out.

 

“no, it’s really okay, i don’t want to keep your time and less at such late hours of the night,” chan says instead even if he loved to know more about minho and actually ask what is he doing up this late and what about all those papers he has. 

  
“no, it’s cool. i don’t sleep at night either.”  
  
  
“what? really? the other night in the elevator you told me how you naps the afternoon away with your cats?”  
  


“i don’t sleep at night,” minho repeats. “even if i’m really tired.”   
  


“why?”  
  


“why, what?”  
  


“why don’t you sleep at night?”   
  


“i guess it’s because i used to stay up all night learning and practicing new choreographies since i never got much free time in the day to do it, so now i’m just used to staying up.”  
  


chan it’s surprised that minho actually has an answer for that. 

“why you don’t sleep at night?”

 

“i don’t know why i can’t sleep at night,” he says, staring at the almost-empty mug of tea on his hands. it sounds like a lie. minho has a feeling at that, although he wasn’t one to read others that well. he isn’t usually good at figuring out when someone’s not telling him the truth but chan doesn’t seem to be a good liar. even though he doesn’t push it.   
  


“so do you want to do something together tonight?”  
  


chan perks up then. “really?”  
  


“what? you mean you were just really going to ditch me after you stole my food and my cat?”  
  


  
  
  


after hours spending together on minho’s living room, minho doesn't make any move to throw him out, he drops himself on the couch after they end watching a random documentary marathon with soonie, doongie and dori sleeping on it. the passing of one sleepless night was never as easy as this dawn in company of minho.

  
if minho is sunshine during the day, he’s something else at night. chan can’t quite figure out what it is. he’s still loud and just short of rowdy, still full of smiles and laughter, but it’s different beyond comparison. that certainty was accompanied by a growing feeling, which made the boy more and more beautiful, as if the limpid aura that surrounded him from the beginning had intensified with the freshness that was breathed under the night.  
  


minho can feed his energy in the daytime, as he told chan before, carrying it out with little naps in time to time, knowing that’s some solution sometimes. but after all that and with less than an hour or two of sleep minho’s still there, bright and lively.  
  


“i guess i should get going,” chan puts his second mug of tea on the coffee table and stands. “i had a really nice time.”  
  


minho turns off the tv and escorts chan to the door. “it was nice having you over.”  
  


it's a split of a second, they are both standing on the door and minho is leaning on it just slightly, and chan would really really really like to kiss him. it's fleeting and later he'd laugh it off.

 

 

 

 


	3. clumsy little heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chan isn't usually so inept but he's overly distracted tonight. he blames it on minho, on his laugh and the way chan's hoodie smells just like _him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey i'm back!! 
> 
> my mind decided to help me out with this au because i wrote too much and there is still a lot more of it because i love board games?? but a kissing scene isn't happening yet in my head??????

 

 

it's barely eight in the morning two days later when chan stumbles out of bed to answer the door. his alarm already went off, but he was too lazy to get up just yet. sleepily he drags his feet to the front door and when he opens he is greeted, by a very bundled up minho who is holding a peace offering in the form of a mug of fuming tea.

“i’m sorry to wake you up,” chan knows that is just formality and minho is never really sorry for such mundane things, and actually knowing he wasn’t particularly ‘sleeping’ but he takes the mug and invites him inside.

“i must say that tea is more of a bribe than an apology,” he says, leaning on chan's kitchen table. “i was wondering if you had time to go get the kittens from vet today and maybe keep them company for a little bit.”

chan sips his tea, it's not too sugary and has a wonderful aroma nothing like the brown blob he gets out of his old rusty kettle at the dorm.

“i'm off at five from work then i have time, when does they come out of their check?” next week it's inventory week, chan reasons, he'll sneak some extra hours, so he can get off early today.

“they should be out at five thirty, don’t worry it doesn’t matter if you'll be a little late,” minho gives him a grateful smile. “i have a hell of a week and i don't want them to be always alone.”

“anytime” chan takes another gulp of tea and escorts minho to the door. he thanks him again and then is gone with a wave and the vanilla and ginger from his cologne reaches chan’s nostrils for the second time.

-

 

chan parks his nissan in front of his condo at six in the afternoon. he has three packs of instant ramen and a season of a drama to catch up on, but the first thing he sees is minho, sitting in the small patch of grass in front of the gates of the apartment petting the fat whitey cat of the old lady from the third floor.

“good evening minho,” he greets, startling him.

the fat whitey cat runs as much as his huge body allows and disappears under a bush. minho looks only slightly disappointed and chan feels a little guilty, so he sits in the grass, on minho's left.

“he got scared because he doesn't know you well yet,” minho explains. “he's a very shy kitty.”

chan thinks about those times when that same fat cat stared at him from the balcony of the third floor, silently judging his every move, and would like to differ, thinking how actually only minho’s cats seems to like his presence, but minho is quick to change the subject.  
  


“how are you?”

  
  
“good, it was a quiet day at work. how about you… what are you doing here?"

“a shitty day. i just want it to end but sadly i’m still waiting an important call.” minho explains, he pushed both hands into the pockets of his jacket and somehow it’s making him look a little smaller. he’s naturally shrugging his shoulders a little, arms pressed tightly to his sides. his whole posture makes him look awkward and a little bit insecure. 

chan would like to inquire if it has anything to do with someone named jisung and with that huge pile of papers minho was reading on the balcony the first night, but he doesn't. for a moment both of them stay silent. chan finds himself sneaking glances at minho. 

minho is wearing a puffy dark green bomber and a scarf, the wind is messing with his hair, blowing a few strands into his face and the light of the setting sun gives his skin and almost golden glow. he is gorgeous.

the wind blows a little harsher and minho wraps himself up in his green bomber a little tighter, he looks cosy and warm, but the tip of his nose is starting to redden. and chan can barely control his urge to touch him. to pull him in a hug or to reach out and place his fingers at the top of his now redden tiny nose, so he does it. chan pokes it and minho gives him an amused smile even with his tired semblance, reaching over to poke his cheek and chan watches in close up how the last rays of sunlight reflect in his sparkling eyes.  
  
  


“do you want me to keep you company?.”  
  


  
minho beams and drags him inside.

 

chan looks up from his board when he hears minho mumble under his breath. he’s not sure what he’s saying, but he can tell from minho’s face that he’s annoyed.

“this is stupid,” minho mutters, throwing a pink peg across the room.

chan snickers before he turns back to his own light box. he’s pretty satisfied with this beach scene. he’s working on his sun when he realizes he’s running low on yellow pegs. he glances over at minho’s pegs and he has a ton of yellow pegs.

“what kind of 90s realness is this!” minho wails, throwing more pegs across the floor of the living room. “how do you even know about this game?”

“it’s just lite brite,” chan says, smirking a little. “i can’t believe how mad you are right now.” he inches closer to minho’s light box and frowns.

“what are you even making?”

minho turns to glare at him. “it’s a sailboat,” he says tersely.

  
  
chan smirks because he sees neither sail nor boat. “can i borrow a yellow peg?” he asks instead.

minho narrows his eyes at him suspiciously. “what are you making that you’re running out of yellow pegs?” he demands. he practically climbs over chan’s lap to see what he’s making. “what is this? this is so unfair!” he complains before he grabs his own light box and turns his back on him to continue his attempts at making a sailboat. 

  
  
chan assumes he’s making some headway because they work together in silence for a few minutes, and after he steals a few more yellow pegs from minho, chan realizes he’s hungry.

“so eat, you have legs, the kitchen’s five steps away.” minho says matter-of-factly when chan voices that out loud. he still sounds sullen and chan finds funny how many facets of minho he could discovered so far.

“i’m crabbing ice cream, we don’t have any here.” chan says.   
  
  
“why are you telling me this? am i going to have to do the grocery shopping for you?” minho looks at him in exasperation.

“my friend changbin helped me out with the shopping yesterday but we don’t buy any.”

“is that my problem?,” minho questions, aggressively shoving a green peg into a slot. “go buy some if you’re so hungry.”

“come with me.”

“no, go buy your ice cream and this sailboat will be done by the time you get back.” minho says stubbornly.

chan sneaks a glance at minho’s light box and it just looks like a random bunch of colorful  lines. but he figures pointing it out isn’t going to help him convince minho to do a convenience store run with him.

“please?” he sticks out his lower lip in an attempt of cutesy. “i’m hungry.”

“why do you need me to come with you? you were going to go out by yourself a few weeks ago if this happen. just go and buy it.”

“you wouldn’t let me wander around by myself,” chan says. he drapes himself over minho’s back and he can feel the moment that minho gives up.

“it’s cold outside.” minho tries one last time, gesturing at his thin blue-light shirt.

“i’ll lend you a sweater!.” chan is already on his feet and running towards his room before minho can even process what he said.

  
  
  
  
  
“this is too big.” minho says while pushing up the sleeves of the hoodie that chan gives him for their late night convenience store run. the sleeves slide back down anyway.

“i don’t think so, you’re just too small.”

chan replies, reaching out to fold the cuffs of the sleeves for him. minho looks even tinier and more childlike in his hoodie, it’s a new look on him and chan kind of likes the way he’s attempting to bury his nose into the collar of it because he’s so cold.    
  
  
he hooks an arm through minho’s and drags him into the convenience store.    
  
  
the girl behind the counter looks up from his phone long enough to mumble out a greeting, but otherwise doesn’t bother to move a muscle.   
  
  
minho seems mystified when chan hands over a shopping basket.

“why do we need this? i thought we were just getting ice cream.” he asks, letting himself be hauled around.

“lots of ice cream,” chan corrects, navigating minho towards the aisle with all the ice packaged. “and banana milk.” something catches his eye, and he pulls minho along with him into the next aisle. “churros!” he gives minho a pleading look.

“wait. so i’m paying for all this?” minho looks like he’s coming to a slow revelation right away. he rolls his eyes when chan gives him a blank look in reply. minho assumes that’s a yes.

“and cookies, these are really good it’s cheesecake flavor.”

chan continues, shoving a pack of cream filled cookies into the basket. minho leaves the basket with him for a minute to grab some juice, but when he comes back, chan and the basket are gone. he finds him two aisles away, and more cookies and bags of chips have been added in. minho raises an eyebrow when chan tries to quietly add a few ramen’s cup into the basket.

“amazing, you’re really spending all my money on this?”

“you were the one who says sugar is the solution to rough nights, and it’s not like i’m not going to share,” chan gives him a sheepish shrug.

“you think i want to eat ramen at two thirty in the morning?” minho makes a face at that.

chan shrugs once more, this time more nonchalantly. “we could always just go back to my apartment and try the lite brite again.”

minho shoves the ramen’s cups at chan. “get the spicy ones,” he says, before he heads towards the cash register to pay for their midnight mini-feast. 

-

it becomes sort of a routine.

when chan reaches the point of being done with his endless insomnia he'll go to minho's. and it's pleasant to know minho always be right next door with a cup of delicious tea and a pretty smile on him. they spends their night time shared playing board games, watching old movies or long series, and doing late night convenience store runs.

since minho is usually the one buying him food whenever they do a late night convenience store runs, chan finally reciprocates when he drags him out again to minho's chagrin. he buys minho strawberry milk and the weird cheesecake cream puff cookies that he likes so much. most of the time they prefer to stay indoors and rest on minho’s grey couch and cuddles the kittens or only play with them until late morning and sometimes when minho comes back earlier from his dance and choreography lessons they’ll eat together.

chan forgot when was the last time he ate at his own house and he is actually fine with it. soonie, doongie and dori likes him, he likes them, and minho.

minho makes a good cook.

  
chan finds this new routine of them very domestic and he’s kind of scared to think much of it but nonetheless when the lady of the ddeobbokki stand near their place asks, he says “for two, please.” taking out the spontaneity of it, chan feels a little jittery, jumping the stairs two at a time to reach the ninth floor, but at the same time not really wanting to get at minho's door one day only to find the apartment empty.

by now, it isn’t weird how it keeps happening. when chan is back late from work or from the gym, and sometimes minho is just back from his lessons, eyes a little red and his pajama just thrown on still sitting a little tilted on his shoulders, lazing around the house with a mug of tea and chan is almost tempted to say he is waiting.

he is still not sure what to make of that, or if he wants to make it into something at all, because the thought is scary enough to make him hope for something that maybe isn't even there. it already has been a week days, they shared plenty of meals and a handful of laughter and chan shouldn't feel like this, like this means anything more than minho being a good neighbor, being a good friend. nothing more.

now it was obvious to chan that he had wanted that boy from the beginning and that he had acted with the detours that characterized all his actions. chan shouldn't want to grab minho by the neck and kiss him. but it’s stupid and pointless because he heard it on every thumping sound of his heartbeat the more time chan spent around him.

-

“let’s go bike riding.”

chan’s head snaps up, he was seated on the floor of minho’s living room with soonie plopped on his lap, fast asleep. he didn’t want to wake soonie up so he sat and watched. “but it’s past midnight. and it’s my turn to choose what we do.” he holds up the dvd in his hand. “it’s a disney night.”

“disney nights are reserved for when we just want to stay in and relax,” minho reminds him. “i don’t want to stay in. i want to go bike riding.”

“but,” chan gestures at the dvd that he has now put back on the coffee table. “…the lion king is a classic.” 

“we can come back and watch it,” minho says. “please? i know it’s your turn but last week we did that gross lite brite thing and the convenience store run.”

“the convenience store run wasn’t an activity minho.”

“i specifically remember not wanting to go out that night nor paying for snacks.” 

chan sighs loudly. “fine. but new deal. we switch off on nights now. we have to do what the other person wants, no matter how many things they want to do.”

“that’s not fair!, you always want to do things that require effort.  like getting out of our cozy condo and going to the dumb convenience store.” minho complains.

“uhm.. me? you’re the one who wants to go riding bikes in the middle of the night, i make us do things like play lite brite and-” chan stops short and his eyes brighten momentarily. “we’re playing legos tomorrow night. i hope your lego skills are better than your lite brite skills.”

“you think i don’t know that you’re trying to humiliate me with your twelve-year old playdate ideas,” minho says, crossing his arms across his chest. “but i’ll have you know that i have superior lego skills.”

“i guess we’ll see tomorrow night.” he sighs exaggeratedly as he makes a big show of dragging himself to his feet while letting soonie on the floor still asleep.

“i’ll be back. i’m going to go grab a jacket.”

“wait!,” minho says, hurrying to his room.

“i’m not going to ditch you minho, i wouldn’t do that. i really just want to grab a- oh.” chan calls out and he blinks when minho reappears with his black hoodie from days ago.

“i never got a chance to give it back to you,” minho says, holding it out. “put it on and let’s go.”

chan is still pulling the hoodie over his head when minho puts a hand on his back and gently pushes him along. “stop pushing, god.” his voice comes out muffled as he struggles to find the right hole for his head and his left arm. “i’m stuck!” he lets out a whine when he finds he can’t move his left arm. 

minho laughs loudly. “hold on, puppy.”

chan feels him pull at the material and he finally gets his hand and head free and through the right holes. “cute,” minho says, smirking at chan’s ruffled blond hair.    
  


  
  
chan keeps veering off the trail and the only upside to that is how much it makes minho laugh. it’s one of the things that’s a little different about minho at night, his laugh. it sounds almost the same as it does in the day, but the timbre is different, and it’s lighter. it makes him sound a little giddier sometimes, but it’s adorable cute.

  
  
chan isn’t usually so inept because he knows how to ride a bike, they’ve all gone bike riding at some point in life, but he’s overly distracted tonight. he blames it on minho, on his laugh and the way chan’s hoodie smells just like him.

“chan!” minho reaches out and manages to grab his handlebars in time to stop chan from swerving into a ditch. minho smile fades a bit. “are you okay? do you want to head back?”

“no, it’s fine. i’m fine.” chan shakes his head as he straightens up.

“hey.” minho touches his wrist lightly. “we can go back. really, i don’t mind. we’re both supposed to have fun.”

“it’s fine. i’m having fun, my bike and i are just. having a disagreement?.” chan says again, this time reaching out to grab minho’s hand. and minho tilts his head like he’s studying him now.

“we can take a break.”

“no, we can keep going,” chan tugs on minho’s hand, dropping his fingers in between minho’s instinctively. and he insists, smiling. “fresh air was a good idea.”

“okay!.” his smile returns on his face. minho’s right foot is back on his pedal but he doesn’t move and he gives chan an odd look. “i kind of need my hand.”

_ what? _

“oh.” chan feels his whole face heat up and he’s really glad they’re not near any of the street lamps that are around the park. “sorry.” he drops minho’s hand immediately as if it burned in his. 

minho’s face drops for a split second and it’s gone so fast that chan thinks he may have imagined it.

“race you to that playground,” he says, before he takes off quickly.

“cheater!” chan calls out, pedaling after him. 

-

“so this is why you have been putting our outings off? because you are playing family with the neighbor?” changbin looks affronted.

“i'm not playing family, we’re just helping each others out at nights.”

chan has been very firm with himself about this, not getting carried away and not getting any weird ideas, because he honestly likes their little arrangement and the fact that minho doesn't even bother knocking anymore when he brings him coffee in the morning before his classes.

“yes, sure. tell yourself that dude, now we're going out tomorrow, with hyunjin and the guys, no objection.”

changbin throws away his chai tea latte in the bin near the register, where chan should be working, and throws him another warning look before almost face planting himself on the sliding doors of the shop.

when he tells minho about his engagement with his friends, the other is in the kitchen chopping carrots and onions skillfully, putting a mise en place on advance in favor of make a looking chicken soup as dinner for them and chan's mouth already waters. he hasn't had one like this since he last visited his mother and that was before autumn.

“don't worry,” he says “i have the dance competition and lot of work to do this weekend.”

there is a lump in chan throat, hard as a rock and he swallows it down, like he has been doing for the past few weeks when he has to remind himself that knowing little fragments and details of him do not make them more acquaintances than before and that he is only the friendly neighbor and nothing more, that he’ll ever only be that in minho’s life. and he expected nothing but somehow he still got disappointed.

“oh... okay, good luck on it then.”

“thank you! same to you, have a great time with your friends”

and minho gives him a comely smile while the crack of his eyes rise tenderly by inert and chan is angry because he is not supposed to feel this flustered. and not long since he started to hate himself because it’s only one smile but it makes him falls deep and blindly even if he strongly tries not to.

 

 


	4. after i met you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it’s admiration for minho’s bright and sparkly eyes, and the tiny mole at the corner of his nose that’s only visible when he turns to the right, and his smooth, unblemished skin too.
> 
> and it's comfy, how minho's warmth weaves through him, it's probably got more to do with how he is lately feeling for minho than just purely chan's penchant for minho’s comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  woojin, seungmin and jeongin ‘me after you’ cover save the day.  if you didn’t hear it yet >> [hear how heaven would sound like](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzq95Eskk_I) !!

 

 

weekend that time comes earlier than chan expected, he meets up at a pizza parlor with his friends for dinner. changbin has his head on the table and looks like he has pretty much given up on life at this point being that he just ends his last music project, hyunjin is sitting while cheerfully bouncing his legs back and forth as his eyes were completely focused on the menu. he orders a salad and chan silently judges him.  


“are you on a new diet?”, he asks, between slurping his cola and devouring his pizza.  


“some of us want to live longer than fifty”, hyunjin answers and stabs another leaf with viciously grace.  


chan files it under one of those weird phases hyunjin goes under sometimes and shrugs. he only wishes dieting wouldn't make his friend so hysteric. “so changbin told me _the situation_ with your next door neighbor. how you invite yourself over his house at night. _every night until dawn_ . that’s kinda sneaky.”  


“that’s not how it is, god changbin makes it looked bad and weird and _bad_ than it actually is”, chan replies grumpily and sighs. chan can't really blame him but he's still a little offended after all. chan certainly knows that changbin wants the best for him but sometimes the boy would honestly sell him for only a penny to the highest bidder. he really needs better friends.

  
“hey, i didn’t make anything up. i just tell him the truth!” changbin crosses his arms on his chest and pouts even though it only stay for a second that way before slurping his own drink. and chan sighs one more time, a little heavier, he knew they would be annoying about such a thing but he really didn't think he'd be accused like that five minutes on the dinner before he even got a chance to explain.  


“that’s right, he only tells me the truth”, hyunjin says with a slight shrug and then he puts on his signature mischievous smirk before adding “so, when it’s the wedding?” hyunjin continues cheekily and chan looks at him accusingly but the boy just shrugs it off with a sheepish grin. chan really hopes for hyunjin to stick on his salad and chokes for his comments.  


“i hate you both” he muses feeling spiteful, but he doesn't mean it. chan doesn't even try to defend himself at this point because he knows that it won't get him anywhere.

  
“dude, you loves us.” hyunjin snorts. 

  
“let’s focus on the real deal, does it works with your insomnia somehow?” changbin asks.

 

chan’s late night visits at minho’s apartment went from once every couple weeks to once a week. that once a week soon turned into three times a week. that three times turned into every other day. and eventually, before he even noticed, chan was staying over every single night. by now chan stopped even bothering for a reason to come into minho, and minho never question it, he simply opens the door for chan and walks him into his living room‘s too familiar couch where his three cats and a movie wait for them. it all became routine and comfortable for the pair and neither of them questioned it because neither of them minded. 

 

“actually yeah, it do helps” he declares.

  
“holy crap, so there’s really going to be a wedding!” hyunjin replies, because of course, he can't move on from that and now, this was just straight up bullying.

  
“i think it's nice of him, okay!. he’s just being a friendly neighbor and nothing more.”   


he tells them that, half as a way to defend himself and half in hopes that this kind of answer will stir the conversation away from _the situation_ between him and minho. there wasn’t even such a thing to begin with at all. but he already knows that changbin and hyunjin weren’t buying it before he has even finished the sentence. 

  
"can you just for once admit that you're overly into him?,” changbin asks tiredly. “every single time we meet and update each others up the first words that literally comes out flying of your mouth is _minho this_ , _minho’s cats that_ and at the beginning it was cute, really, but now it’s just too painful to watch.”

  
"can you both _please_ just drop the topic? okay, fine, yes! i might be interested in him, but that’s it, nothing more is going to happen from that, it’s just a little crush”, chan whines slightly muffled as he just buries his head in his arms. 

  
“yeah _little_ like the form of godzilla.” it isn’t a surprise when changbin rolls his eyes at him and brushes his reply off and chan wants to cross over the whole place and leave since he can feel the embarrassment blooming on his face.

  
"fine, we’ll stop, calm down", hyunjin says and he has a serious expression that not matches with his juvenile face and his gingerly tone of voice. chan is about to comment on it but hyunjin cuts him off before he could even open his mouth. “you two nerds heard me out on this!, i think the most logical thing to do then it’s to actually invited him over for a welcome party as _thanks.”_ he suggests. 

  
“welcome party?” changbin frowns. “hyunjin, chan’s neighbor have been there for years already.”  


“i think it'll be nice of us dude, he clearly makes chan a good. and it would be like some sort of initiation into our circle of friends so, _a welcome party!”_   hyunjin reasons.

  
“oh, good point.” changbin adds but his devotedly attention is on his now cold dinner. 

  
“you’re only saying that as a mere excuse for you pleasing desire to go out drinking, and to meet him and _judge him_ with your own two eyes.” chan shifts his head to hyunjin and gives him a patronizing look over his arms.   


“that’s true,” hyunjin confirms “you know me so well. hey, you know what he has to bring cake!, what is a party without cake!. tell him that, do your stalker job chan.” hyunjin concludes while he tries to stab an olive, but half misses sending it spiraling three tables over and that was the peaked reach as hyunjin puts the salad aside and scoffs loudly. “fuck this, give me a slice of that pepperoni heaven.”

 

changbin puts his plate in the middle of the table and hyunjin sniffs it before taking a slice.

  
“cheap ass.” changbin protests. “you really want him to bring cake at his _own_ party?”

  
“that’s also true.” hyunjin says while munching on changbin’s pizza as he discards the option of baking a cake himself, if only for fear of poisoning his guest. 

  
“we could try with the coffee-shop near my office, they added cakes and treats to their menu.” changbin suggests while he cleans his hands with a little pink cloth napkin near the corner of the table.

  
“oh, that’s more of a reasonable idea” 

  
“of course it is hyunjin, i am brilliant. you’re welcome”

  
“stop bragging,” chan says, stretching over the table. “it’s not attractive on you.”

  


even after the details of the preparations died down chan can clearly hear hyunjin excitedly asking if there are going to be balloons, since it's a party there must be.

chan knows that reasoning with both hyunjin and changbin’s excitement is almost impossible. he knows that getting into that debate is pointless, because they won't let him win or he just won't admit that he's losing it and the worst part is that he is way too used to this already. he has long since given up but if you can’t beat them, join them. so instead chan just sighs and asks hyunjin.

 

“so when exactly would this be genius?”

 

“next weekend, you find a time and place that suits you.” 

 

 

  


-

  
  
  


it’s on a familiar and well known kitchen scene when he tells minho about his friends plan, definitely leaving aside the jokes and unnecessary comments hyunjin and changbin made up that time and the details of how the whole plan was a former welcome party on his honor, even thought minho has lived on the neighborhood for _years_ now. 

the sound of the knife hitting the wood fill the silence and chan clears his throat. “you could come with me,” he says in the spur of the moment “i mean if you don't have anything else to do, we are just going to drink and, probably eat chicken and hyunjin promised a cake and—”  


“i'd love to,” minho cuts him off.  


 and chan has a hard time tuning down his smile.

 

 

  


-

 

 

 

 

in retrospect chan should have known that minho meeting his friends was _a bad idea_ , especially seeing how well him and changbin hit it off, giggling like school girls after just a beer and a newly discovered common passion for usher and jannabi’s songs.

 

“so, minho what is that you do?” hyunjin asks, like the nosy gossipmonger he is.

 

“i'm a dancer.”

 

“you dance? chan never told me that! oh my god, i am a dancer too.” hyunjin leans over the table, almost knocking off changbin with an elbow in the process.

  


“and i'm sure you're a very skilled and a pretty dancer,” minho says with a sweet smile.

 

hyunjin beams at him brightly and chan scoffs at the scene. hyunjin is a man of temperance and self-control, but there are a few things that he honestly admits he couldn't resist. two of them are: pretty things and dancing, and casually here minho is both. and he was a sucker for it.

  


“he already likes you. you don't need to flatter him, minho” changbin says while he rolls his eyes and clinks their glasses together.  


 

hyunjin sticks out his tongue on changbin’s direction and he fakes a heart attack, only to be saved on the verge of death by the magic kiss of prince hyunjin on his cheek. changbin squeals and chan finds that minho doesn't mind to be sucked in their antics.  
 

as chan listens to the crazy stories of the past week that the three share, he couldn’t help but notice the distance between him and minho in the booth growing smaller and smaller. 

before chan knew it, half of minho’s body was leaning on him and he didn’t even register that he had wrapped his arm around minho too. changbin raises a few questioning eyebrows at the closing gap between the boy’s but chan chose to ignore them.

at the angle chan is sitting he could just subtly notice little details of minho’s looks. he found himself staring. he stares, and stares. it’s out of admiration. admiration for minho’s bright and sparkly eyes, and the tiny mole at the corner of his nose that’s only visible when he turns to the right, and his smoothly unblemished skin too. it’s also admiration for his lips that are the same soft pinkish red color in which chan had come to find comfort in. 

so it didn’t came as surprise to him when he caught himself –again– staring at minho’s lips for the fourth time in an hour. it isn’t the fact that he is looking at them that causes him distress but the thought that keeps running through his head about him not really minding, hell, he’d even bet that a part of him desired to keep those lips just to himself.   
  
but what did came as surprise, that just take him so much time to realize might be how much he wants to lean forward. because there's only ever quiet familiarity with a buzz of excitement when it comes to minho. to chan, minho is, all in all, beauty.   
  
  
and maybe it wasn't that much of a _bad idea_ , he thinks, as minho laughs rich and carefree pressed on his side.

 

 

 

  
  


stumbling back home minho has a hard time to hold in his laughter and grips chan's leather jacket for dear life when he is about to fall off the stairs in a particular hard fit after chan told him that changbin used to go around pranking random passerby in high-school only for rebellion.

minho fumbles with the keys of his apartment, then says a couple of fucks and hands them over to chan.

 

“i'll probably hate you tomorrow,” he says, when chan has managed to get the key inside the hole. “i'm not good with hangovers.”

 

“we will manage,” chan mumbles pushing the door open and dragging minho as far as the couch and throwing him on the cushions without much ceremony.

 

“urgh,” minho groans. “you could at least have warned me.”

 

and chan’s intoxicated mind muses him that he should probably get them water, water is good in this moments, but minho's carpet has never felt this good, and he has no intentions of moving.

 

“hey,” minho pokes him with his toe and chan humpfs in answer. “hey,” minho keeps poking him but chan choose to ignores him.

 

there is some shifting, probably minho taking off his jacket, or falling off the couch, or falling off the couch while taking off his jacket, chan isn’t sure, it's dark on the living room and his eyes have a hard time staying open. then there are hands over his shoulders and he can feel minho's weight on his side, chan turns and let his body be embraced comfortably by minho and his hands reach blindly for the other waist.

 

it happens automatically like how had been the whole night. and perhaps the little intoxication that clouds his mind makes more confident his movements and caresses.

 

minho moves his hand until his fingers disappear under the sleeve of the long sweater chan’s wearing and stops when he reaches the inside of chan’s wrist. he can feel the way minho’s thumb slip and presses down to the juncture of his wrist where chan’s pulse point is throbbing erratically as if it were his only purpose to feel his heartbeat pulsing and he hums, like he’s pleased.  
 

chan grins brightly even in the dark, brushing his fingertips along the inside of minho’s wrist before he moves them to that spot where he can also feel the steady strum of his pulse. minho’s hand is soft and warm on his touch, and clearly much smaller than chan’s own, he just wishes that minho’s hand is actually _his_ to hold. 

 

they stay that way long time, snuggling up cosily. it's comfy, how minho's warmth weaves through him, it's probably got more to do with how he is lately feeling for minho than just purely chan's penchant for minho’s comfort.

 

“you know how you asked me that time why i couldn’t fall asleep?”

 

  
minho is in the middle of idly tracing out circles on the palm of chan’s left hand, so he doesn’t say anything but he knows chan knows he’s listening. 

 

“i can’t sleep because i’m homesick.” 

 

he whispers because he doesn’t want to do anything ridiculous and brainless that will make minho move away nor speaks too loudly in fear of breaking the little haven they’ve create this time. he feels stupid though, because he never told anyone why he has been trouble sleeping before.

 

  
“you are?” minho’s eyebrows shoot up, turning away slightly to lean his head on chan’s shoulder. he shifts closer and chan isn’t sure if that’s better or worse because he’s so  _close_ . chan can definitely feels how he colors a little with the approach.   


 

“yeah.” chan turns his face away to stare at the ceiling. “i know it’s _stupid._ but it’s so quiet at night. i don’t think about it when i’m working because it’s so busy on the shop. and i liked that i’ve so many energetics friends, you know? it’s always loud and lively when they’re around and i don’t think about how homesick i am. but at night, everyone’s asleep and it always feels too quiet and far too empty. and i just miss home, my bed here doesn’t feel right and i just feel restless and hollow. it weighs me down so much it won’t let me sleep.”   


 

“hey it’s not stupid,” minho says quietly. “chan—”  


 

“don’t,” chan says, closing his eyes as he sure can feel the embarrassment right down into his bones. 

“please. i don’t really want to talk about it. i just wanted to tell you _. i had to tell you_ . after i started spending my nights with you it became easier. thank you. but don’t tell changbin nor hyunjin, they wouldn’t let me live throughout if they knew. okay?”   


 

“okay.” and minho squeezes chan’s left hand lightly as a promise. 

  
  
  
  


chan blinks when he turns the lights in minho’s bathroom off. the living room is completely dark and he can barely make out anything. “i didn’t think this idea through,” he laughs. “i can’t see anything.”

  
  
a light turns on near the large couch and minho sticks his head out, holding his phone in his hand. “better?”

  
  
chan smiles fondly as he follows the light and crawls back into minho's carpet where he was earlier. chan laughs since he vividly recalls the events of the party when minho shoves him in retaliation near the couch. “it was a nice night,” he says when they lapse into silence.   


  
minho hums in agreement. the light on his phone is still on and it’s casting shadows on the vast majority of the ceiling. he sees it too.

 

“look,” minho sticks up the index and middle fingers of his right hand and lets the rest of his fingers meet with his thumb. “a bunny it’s hopping.” he moves his hand in small movements.

  
chan laughs when he figures out what minho is doing before he intertwines both his thumbs and holds his hands up. “bats!” he wriggles his fingers and moves closer to minho’s bunny.

  
  
minho makes a displeased sound. “bunnies don’t like bats.”

  
  
“hop away, little bunny,” chan says, deepening his voice as he moves his bat even closer. it chases the bunny for a few seconds before he swoops in and encloses minho’s hand with both of his.    


  
“that’s cheating! bats do not even do that to bunnies,” minho curls his trapped hand into a fist and breaks himself free.    


  
“okay, fine,” chan concedes, pulling his hands away. 

  
  
“don’t eat my animals again,” minho casts chan a look before holding his hands up again.

  
  
“i promise,” chan snorts.

 

minho teases and chan finds himself oddly at ease, relaxing in the air of familiarity that comes from minho. gone is the embarrassment he had glimpsed before while reasoning to him the truly reason of his sleepless nights. 

minho curves his left hand until his fingers are facing down and holds up the right hand close to the curve of his left arm, spreading out his fingers. chan’s eyebrows knit together. 

 

“what it’s supposed to be?,” he laughs when minho starts making loud obnoxious honking noises as a hint. “what’s that? a goose?.”

  
  
“a swan!” minho says sounding offended.   


 

“swans are supposed to be graceful!” chan bursts into laughter.

  
  
“this swan prince is graceful as fuck,” minho argues, making the feathers ruffle. “go on. let’s see what you can do vampire.”

  
  
chan presses the fingers of both his hands together before he slightly claps a little bit.

  
  
“a shark?” minho laughs when he holds it up.

  
  
“yeah, you stick to your graceful swans. i’m a predator.”

  
  
minho laughs even harder when chan starts singing the lyrics of baby shark’ song, even following the choreo and flowing the movements of his hands when the characters of the whole baby shark’s family changed and made an appear. “stop, don’t!” he tries to nudge him to makes him stop but that only makes chan sing louder. “you’re so embarrassing. stop.”   
  
chan raises his eyebrows but he just continues to sing, so minho joins him, in between giggles, when he gets to the chorus and he can’t breathe by the time they end with a loud cheer.    


  
“you’re so embarrassing!” minho punches him on the arm. 

 

  
  
chan moves his shark so the snout isn’t pointing upwards. “your turn,” he says.

  
  
minho is busy on his task, he presses the fingers of both his hands together before he folds his index fingers over each other and sticks his thumbs out slightly. and when he holds his hands up, chan narrows his eyes.    


  
“that looks like a wolf,” chan says dubiously.

  
  
“it’s a puppy!,” minho says. “we can’t play if you don’t understand the intricate art of shadow puppets.” he makes pathetic panting noises and moves his dog closer to chan’s shark. “look, he likes you.” he puckers his own lips and makes kissing sounds as his dog nudges chan’s shark. 

  
  
he laughs but minho keeps making kissing noises so he gives in and nudges his shark over and makes a kissing sound in return. he’s about to move his hand away when minho grabs it and uses it to yank chan towards him so they’re face to face. minho stares at him, all his earlier playfulness gone, and there’s only this intensity in his eyes that makes chan gulp and swallow noiselessly. chan almost jerks away because he’s still not used to being _this_ _close_ to him, but minho is holding on to his arm, keeping him still. he doesn’t say anything, just studies chan’s face. and they’re so close that chan can feels where minho’s eyes land on his face.

 

“better?,” minho asks after what feels like hours of the two of them staring at each eyes, detaching him slowly from the distance they maintained before.

 

“thank you. for caring, and everything. and especially for not judging”, chan hums while smiling thanks.

 

“anytime.” minho answers smiling. he has a million different kinds of smiles and chan likes every version of it, but this soft one he’s giving chan now is his favorite.   
  


burnt of the alcohol before is nothing against the feeling he gets when he catches minho’s eyes from the other side of the room and minho has the prettiest expression on, with his eyes impossibly large and bright while his mouth contorts. 

 

“minho.” 

  
  
“yeah?”

  
  
and chan finds himself laughing, with him, at him, feeling light and bubbly and carefree, smiling genuinely and with a little sheepishness and excitement like he hasn't done in a long time. 

 

“minho,” he just says again.

  
  
minho returns the smile. “chan.”   


 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a silly but necessary question: minho’s mole its on the right side or left side of his nose?? i was highly sure it was on his right side until i saw a pic and was on the opposite end and now i’m??? 
> 
> if someone is so kind to tell me thanks a lot because i have to edit it or you could do me a favor and pass it by as if i wrote that description right jfdksajs


	5. like the falling stars, i’m afraid i’ll fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “don’t be silly, chan. who would think i’m the brightest star?”.
> 
>  
> 
> “i do”. he adds in a heartbeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the title it’s from tmt’s lyrics (i love that song!)

 

 

minho becomes a constant in chan’s life. all the events at those night brings the possibility of getting to know minho _easily_ , without chan even inquiring much. after a couple of weeks, there is a dramatic improvement in chan’s insomnia and his and minho’s friendship. one day, chan comes out to minho on accident, when they're at a sushi boat joint taking advantage of their happy hour, an “all plates $1.50” deal.   

 

"i haven't actually eaten sushi in a century," chan says, grabbing a plate of fatty tuna from the conveyor belt, "this guy i dated a while ago had this _thing_ about sushi, he hated eating raw fish and even more if he didn't know where they came from; and he got really passive aggressive about it every time i ate sushi so i just ended up avoiding it most of the time—" he looks up and minho has that expression, the kind where chan knows he said something important but minho's trying to pretend it wasn't important. and he mentally catalogues his words.

 

"oh," he says. "well. yeah, there's that, i guess."

 

minho laughs, a little high pitched but relieved.

 

"yeah," he says, "there's that. i guess we have similar taste in ex-boyfriends." his voice shapes  _ex_ like a question mark, so chan nods, laying the question to rest.

  
  
chan would really like to inquire if minho’s _ex_ has anything to do with someone named jisung, but he doesn't because he presumes he would find out shortly; although he has his suspicions since he did not hear more about that guy. nonetheless, he only gave a silent cheer as he turned and started eating while he let his mind be embraced with the new information.

the rest of the evening passed like a blur, the scene from before  repeating and distracting chan as minho’s voice echoed around his head. by the end of the night, minho was watching him carefully, an amused smile on his face.

 

  
“are you okay?” he asked as they stepped into the cooling night air.   


 

“what?” chan asked, dragging his mind away from minho’s and exes and feelings.  


 

minho smiled easily, “you were frowning at your car key almost the whole walk like it's spewing insults at you,” he laughed, the sound threading through chan’s senses like a warm breeze. chan swallowed, looking at his feet as they walked to the parking lot. 

 

  
“i was just thinking about how long it's been since  i've eaten this, it was delicious right?” he said, avoiding the real explanation for his expressions.   


 

“well, you got the chance now!  it was pretty decent sushi,” minho said, nudging him with his shoulder and smiling.  


 

“i wouldn’t have had it without your turn to pick an activity, it’s such a good place,” chan said, rolling his head up to look at minho and feeling his breath catch at the brilliant expression on the other's face. he thinks that even if he could pull stars out of the sky and arrange them into words, there wouldn’t be an adequate phrase to capture how beautiful the boy looks like. minho was beaming at him and it was blinding against the darkness surrounding them.

 

later, chan drives them to their building, and before minho gets out of the car he turns to him and says, "sorry for dropping that on you, earlier. the whole _liking guys_ thing. i mean, not that i thought you'd mind, but usually i try to lead up to it a little better, yeah."

 

it was just that he's been so wrapped up in thinking about minho that he'd forgotten to think about what he was saying at that time. minho shakes his head like it doesn't matter.

 

"it's fine," minho says, and continues "something else we have in common."

 

he looks at chan for a long moment. minho's eyes look like he wants to say more, and for a split second chan thinks he will,  or do something. what, chan can only hope as he feels a much too  usual sense of warmth radiating through his chest. but instead minho just smiles. and it’s so pretty, and chan is so enamored.  

 

"i'll see you tomorrow," he says, "don't forget your thumb drive for the background music of your job again."

 

chan had totally forgotten.

 

"i won't forget," he promises, letting minho out of the car first.

 

  


  


-  


  


  
  
“you’re making me do a lot of work tonight,” minho grunts. this time it was chan's turn to pick, and now they’re at the park- again- at one in the morning. minho climbs to the top of the jungle gym, and gives chan a withering and offended look when he holds out a hand towards him. it’s not really a lot of work, but why couldn’t they just sit on the _swings?_

  
  
chan laughs as he pulls out a small packet from his pocket.

 

“here, a reward,” he says, passing it over, “i took it before going out.” 

 

minho smiles when he sees the package of lemon candies he likes.   


 

 

minho is now trying to adjust his knees because they’re both facing each other and their knees are pressed together in an uncomfortable way. chan watches him struggle, partly because it’s amusing and also because he can just look since minho is so preoccupied. he has a nice face. who is chan to not appreciate such a view?  
  
  
minho bangs his knee painfully into chan’s during another failed attempt to adjust their position, so chan puts them both out of misery and slides one of his knees in between minho’s, trapping his ankles in between his feet.   
  
  
minho is taken by surprise at the new space this gives him and he pitches forward, yelping. he has to stop himself from face planting right into chan’s chest by steadying his hands on the only solid thing they can get at which end up being chan’s thighs.

   
  
chan laughs, holding minho’s wrists down to steady him. “all good?” 

  
  
the boy nods as he steadies himself and moves his hands away.

 

“stop trying to tip me over,” he grumbles, pinching the side of chan’s knee. 

  
  
“i wasn’t trying to tip you over,” chan says, laughing again, “i was just moving so we have enough space.”

 

they don't say anything more, and chan just sits on the jungle gym with his legs pressed against minho’s and thinks about how he gets to spend so much time with his neighbor, all because he had snuck out into the balcony one night.  


  
  
  
  
  


“okay.” chan struggles to put on a straight face and he kicks at minho’s ankle lightly. “stop laughing. this is a very serious astronomy lesson.” they both go through a few more giggles before they manage to quiet down.

   
  
“okay,” chan starts again, “see that cluster of stars over there?” they both have to squint because even though it’s past one in the morning, there are still too many streetlights in the park. minho’s eyes manage to follow chan’s hand to where he’s pointing. “that’s the constellation of berry.”

  
  
“you can’t name a bunch of stars after your dog! even i know that's too much,” minho snorts.

  
  
“excuse me,” chan says indignantly. “you named a bunch of stars the kingdom of gimpo.” he cuts off minho’s snickering when he adds, “it’s a very tiny cluster.” 

  
  
“it was the biggest one at the time.” minho shifts until their knees are pressed together.

  
  
“look. that cluster of stars should be the 9th constellation.”

  
  
“why?”

  
  
“why? because count them, dumb.”

  
  
“there’s no need to be so hostile.” minho slowly counts the stars, laughing quietly when he finishes. “those three over there that are close together should be you, changbin and hyunjin.”

   
  
chan’s tilts his head. “yeah, that one in the center of those stars should be changbin. it looks like it’s a pain in the ass to the other stars.” 

  
  
minho laughs heartily and raises an eyebrow when he catches chan smiling at him. “what?”

  
  
“you just look pretty,” chan says and looks away from minho, quiet laughter tumbling past his lips as a light pink flushing covered his ears.

 

the movement of rustling trees caressed from the wind  creates blotched shadows along minho’s face, the moonlight hitting in all the right places and causing it to appear bright and illuminated,giving his blondish-brownish hair more visibility. chan fights the urge to reach out and touch, to see if it’s really as soft as it looks.

 

  
  
“don’t waste your time telling me things _i_ already know.” minho laughs at chan’s panicked face, the sound clear and beautiful and so close, making chan swallow thickly.

 

minho gestures to their newest cluster, “which one’s the chan star?” 

  
  
he shrugs. “which one are you in that cluster? i guess the chan star would be the one next to yours.”

  
  
“you don’t know? what about...” minho moves his finger over to the left. “that one that’s close to the center. it’s the brightest one tonight.” he smiles when he looks over. “like you!”

   
  
“i don’t want to be the brightest one,” chan says, “that should be you.” 

  
  
minho makes a face. “don’t be silly, chan. who would think i’m the brightest star?”.

  
  
“i do,” chan says quietly in a heartbeat. 

  
  
minho feels his face heat up, and he looks away and keeps quiet because he’s not sure what he’s supposed to say to that. in the darkness of the night, chan can't see color, but minho's skin feels very warm where chan's fingers are resting against him, and chan can imagine him blushing all the way down.

  
  
“did i make things weird?”

  
  
“no,” minho says honestly, “i’m just not sure what i’m supposed to say when someone says they think i’m a bright star.”

   
  
“excuse me. i said the  _brightest_  star.”

  
  
“okay. fine, sure. the brightest star. whatever,” minho laughs, and not for the first time, chan thinks he's beautiful.

 

minho huffs and shoves his hands up the sleeves of the hoodie chan’s wearing .

  
  
“what are you doing?” 

  
  
“trying to steal some body warmth,” minho says. 

  
  
“really?” chan slides his hands up to minho’s elbows and drags him forward. “because it sounds more like you’re trying to call in some snuggling time.” 

  
  
“you can’t handle my cuddling,” minho challenges.

  
  
chan laughs before he pulls his arms free and wrestles minho until his back is pressed against his chest. minho huffs again, but he leans back and pulls chan’s arms around him.

 

“which one is your favorite?” he asks, placing his hands over chan’s, intertwining their fingers, “i like the 9th one.”

  
  
“really?” chan’s voice is low near minho’s ear and it makes him want to press in even closer to him, “not the kingdom of gimpo?”

  
  
“not at all. that one doesn’t have the chan star.”

  
  
“or the minho star,” chan counters, squeezing minho’s hands before he pulls one of them free. minho ignores it.   


  
“so which one is your favorite?” he asks again.

   
  
chan doesn’t answer and minho lets it drop because he likes their silences, they’re comfortable.

 

chan’s fingers are trailing down the side of his face and minho hums in contentment, closing his eyes. he feels the hand threading lightly through his hair and pretty soon he can feel a thumb barely brushing over his forehead, smoothing out the wrinkle lines and almost gently caressing the sides of his temples, alternately tracing his cheek bones and skimming over his long eyelashes.  


  
“this one.”

  
  
minho opens his eyes and turns his head slightly. “what?” he asks, confused.

  
  
“this one,” chan says, tapping his fingers lightly along minho’s nose, and he realizes chan is tracing a line with the beauty marks on his face. “my favorite one.”   


 

“you are really lame,” he mumbles, turning away to lean his head on chan’s shoulder.

   
  
chan snickers and brings his hand down and slips it back under minho’s shoulder, “you think it’s cute.”

  
  
“believe me, i don’t. you’re gross,” minho says with a snort.

  
  
“ _you_  named a star after me.”

  
  
“so did you!”

  
  
chan laughs and bumps minho’s shoulder lightly, and turns so that their sides are aligned and he can thread his fingers in minho’s cold, clammy palms. he feels delicate skin and his thumb runs over the skinned knuckles and the soft skin of his fingers, and his smile grows a tiny bit when minho finally squeezes back before he presses his face next to minho’s.

 

“minho.”

  
  
minho’s eyes are closed but he can still feel the slight shift of chan’s movements, he knows he’s smiling. minho’s small smile gets just a bit bigger at how familiar this has become for them. and he scoots closer to him.

 

“chan.”  
  


 

 

 


	6. baby i see your future and it’s tied to mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chan automatically grabs minho’s hands to comfortably hold in both of his. at this point, neither one of them is surprised by the contact, and when minho squeezes his hands back, is warmer and stronger and more comforting than chan could ever hope to be.
> 
> what he didn't expect was to get so addicted to the feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disney night! (the title it’s from ‘true to your heart’ mulan soundtrack)

 

 

when chan sneaks his arms around minho’s waist the first time, he feels a little drunk at the feeling. his hand slips behind minho’s back one day and stays there for longer than is considered friendly, and without thinking about it, he grabs minho’s shoulders under movie nights now when feeling tired, so he decides he might as well just lean on the boy. 

what he didn't expect was to get so addicted to that feeling. 

now unconsciously, his body moves towards the other at any chance he can get. he sneaks up with him whenever they’re around, and pulls him closer, resting on him and filling his lungs with minho’s scent of vanilla and ginger.

and minho doesn't seem to mind.

it continues like that and chan finds himself  expecting cuddles on their nights together as a  _ must _ but what hits him the most is the familiarity of their moments. minho on the couch with dinner ready, kittens close behind him and some disney movie ready to watch. it isn’t even chan’s house and the time they have spent together combined probably doesn't amount to much, but this, this feels familiar.

  
  


 

 

“mulan’s dad is so great.” minho glances from the kitchen counter where he’s making caramel popcorn when he doesn’t get a reply. “chan?” he thinks he hears a sniffle and he grins. “are you crying?”  
  
  
“can you not?” chan complains. “you’re ruining the moment.”  
  
  
“how can you already be crying? this is only the beginning,” minho says, trying to stifle his snickering.  
   
  
“it’s sad,” chan insists. “mulan was so worried about upsetting her father but he’s being so nice.”  
  
  
minho takes out the preparation carefully and places it inside a bowl. the bold red and white design of it commands attention. “i bet you’re going to be such a mess when all of china bows down to her later.”  
   
  
“you don’t get to make fun of me when you can’t even watch a horror movie,” chan says.  
   
  
“how dare you to compare! this is a children’s movie.”  
  
  
“true, we both suck.” chan offers.  
  
  
minho laughs, and chan loves how easy it is for him to, carelessly and freely. before he turns to the screen and sees mulan’s father walk over to receive his scroll. he can’t help his snicker when chan lets out a sad sigh when mulan is told off. “such a baby.”  
   
  
“why couldn’t we have watched a happier movie?” chan says. “this is so sad and you’re not even beside me to—” he stops short and minho smiles.  
  
  
“to what?” minho asks sweetly. “cuddle with? would you cry into my shoulder now?”  
 

minho says whilst sitting out on the couch and placing on his coffee table the popcorn bowl he early made. chan moves and sit beside him, “shut up,” he says, grasping minho’s arms and leaning on the boy’s shoulder and minho let him.

 

chan hears the tinkle of dori's collar when she jumps to the living room’s couch and minho’s little cat walks right to his owner and places on his lap settling herself down snugly. the dark striped tiger-like cat stares totally uninterested at the situation in front her. 

chan pets her gently and dori purrs as a quick response to the petting. when he watches the screen again, they’re already at the scene where mulan is entering the camp for the first time.  
 

“minho.”  
  
  
“chan.”  
  
  
he grins fondly. “no, not that. _ minho _ .”   
  
  
“yeah?”   
  
  
“why do you only have female cats? what’s the story?.” chan turns his head to look at him and he witnesses how minho's gaze melts into one of purely adoration.  
  


“because women are queens.”  
 

“i’m serious. i want to know how’ve happened”. chan prompts, automatically grabbing for minho’s hands to comfortably hold in both of his. at this point neither one of them is surprised by the contact, and when minho squeezes his hands back, is warmer and stronger and more comforting than chan could ever hope to be.  
  


“i’m serious too,” minho answers and it takes him a second, and then his face lights up, eyes sparkling. minho’s smile is bright. so contagious. “back in middle school, there were some people i knew whose started to have cats and i thought they were cool and a new look as everyone before just had dogs. somehow that year, i  thinking on how much i wanted a cat. when i went to volunteer with some friends that winter, i saw so many cats there that immediately thought it was destiny. i made my mind that exact day and called all the veterinarians nearby to see if i could adopt but i was too young to doing it on my own so i called my mom to come with me and sign me a permission. there i met a fluffy and radiant-orange tiny cat, sunshine like. and that’s how i adopted soonie.”  
  


“you had her since you were twelve?,” chan listens attentively his thumbs rubbles circles into minho’s large fingers. and he takes minho’s beaming grin as a yes.  
  


minho calls doongie up from where she is sitting and the kitty looks up at him, and starts to rise up and walk away from the desk she was on, obedient to her human. minho starts to reach for doongie, who’s busy meowing and scrubbing her head on the boy’s legs clamming attention and he smiles down at her. “after i had soonie for two years, i brought doongie home. some families friends of mine had a cat which gave birth and she was the last one to remain without owner so i brought her with me.”  
  


“what about dori?”  
 

“i adopted this little one from an abandoned cat’s website”  
  


minho can't find an answer for chan’s early question. if he were to be honest to himself, soonie entered his life at the best time, bringing some spirit to his past –terribly dulled–self, doongie and dori were also a match made in heaven bringing him joy and playfulness by chance.

many people praise minho’s good action at adopting and saving those kittens of such situations when knowing about their stories. telling how luckily those cats were by crossing paths with him. 

though minho thinks he was the luckiest for had them.

minho tries not to look sad as he says how he wished more people would adopt. it had been in passing, but there had been a helpless look lingering on minho’s face as he mentioned it and chan couldn’t forget it.  
  


“everyone here probably wouldn’t be as well-loved as they are with you minho. and,” chan pauses a little, “we might not have ever met if i had come to this condominium and your kittens weren’t the ones to come into my living room from the fire stairs next door. and i wouldn’t have you as a friend.”  
  


minho looks over at him with an bubbly boyish laugh halfway caught in his throat before he scoops up dori and kisses the top of her head. this is when, chan thinks that moment is more perfect than something a camera could recreate.  
  


“that’s true, i don’t know what you would do without us!” minho says in a teasing tone and it’s such a simple sentence, but for some reason chan feels all fluttery, and it’s probably not dori’s furry paws pattering against his chest, as he wonders if anyone really misses him when he leaves as much as he misses them.  
  


the tips of chan’s ears start to tingle, and he feels the flush spreading in his cheeks and neck. he hopes it doesn’t show that he’s overly flustered when he looks away from minho’s playful gaze. 

  
  
  
  


 

chan is huddled under a soft blanket on the couch while they both continue watching mulan. he glances at the time when he hears minho yawn and it’s past three in the morning. “do you want to continue tomorrow night?”  
    
  
minho scoffs. “of course not, my solo is coming up.” his sleepy blinks captivate chan. he finds himself wanting to measure minho’s dark eyelashes, stroke his eyelids closed, and lullabies him until he falls asleep as he wonders if minho is even more beautiful when sleeping.  
  
  
chan watches as shang ties the two discs around yao’s wrists. “you’re such a loser.”  
    
  
“this is the best disney song ever!,” minho says. “i would use this for my solo during the dance competition if my team would let me.”  
    
  
“i don’t think ‘i’ll make a man out of you’ would have the same effect as your choreos does,” chan snickers.  
    
  
minho ignores him because the song has already started.  __ “let’s get down to business! to defeat the huns! did they send me daughters! when i asked for sons!”   
__  
  
chan laughs quietly as he sits back on the crowd couch and listens to minho sing. he has a nice voice—serenely and warmly but it’s different when singing even now as he manages to sing by heart a silly movie song and it keeps getting better with each note. it sounds  _ so _ nice and _ so _ new.   
  
chan adores how everything minho does seems so easy, so graceful. he adores how minho trusts himself, trusts in his abilities, to reach for the most ridiculous notes both  _ high _ and  __ low . 

chan can’t ever imagine that there will come a day when he’ll listen to minho voice and he won’t feel amazed.  
  
  
“chan, help me with the ad-libs,” minho says, before he continues.  __ “you’re a spineless, pale, pathetic lot, and you haven’t got a clue!”   
  
  
“i don’t know the lines!”  
  
  
“you don’t even deserve to have disney nights,” minho huffs.“dishonour! dishonour on your whole family! dishonour on you, dishonour on your cow!”  
  
  
“stop,” chan laughs cheerily, it’s really easy when minho is around.  
  


_ “i’m never gonna catch my breath.” _ minho switches the tone of his voice while continue.  _ “say goodbye to those who knew me,”  _ his voice cracks and both boys burst out into laughter.

  
chan feels silly for smiling so much when minho shifts closer and tucks his head under chan’s chin after he resumes the whole song.  
  


chan opens both his eyes when he hears minho yawn again. “ _ you _ are tired.”  
  
  
“it’s because of your dumb sleepy face,” minho says, punching him merrily on the knee.  


minho smirks and chan wonders if he’s allowed to kiss the smirks off minho’s face now, wonders if he can kiss him— _ really kiss him _ —and see if he tastes like he’s made up of constellations inside just like he is on the outside.   
  


  
  
  


-

  
  
  


it had been a fateful sunny day two months prior, when hyunjin had stumbled upon the 'for rent’ ad in the discarded paper on one of the tables at his day job.   _ apartment in a residential area at a incredibly low price _ , something had to be wrong. the apartment per se was perfect, everything hyunjin could have ever hoped for such a small amount of money. 

it was a corner apartment, facing on the little garden that all the condominium shared, sun shone through the windows in the morning while it was beautifully shadowed from the afternoon heath. it was perfect and, as hyunjin signed the contract felt like all wrong things in his life were suddenly going to right themselves.

but as the say goes, while one side of your life skyrockets, another plummets in the deepest corners of hell. 

which given that his friends actually find his new apartment as a whole new acquisition to their little hideout for games sessions and boys nights in his place to meet up. 

  
  
  
hyunjin was about to throw all his wardrobe inside a huge black trash bag to take them to the laundry when there were short knocks sound on the door and he glances up from his phone, frowning. he hopes whoever is on the other side will just leave but then the knocking continues and hyunjin bites back a groan, slowly getting out of bed.

he expected a stranger knocking by mistake, maybe, or even another dance student, which was highly unlikely–point is, he expected literally anyone else but changbin and chan standing in front of him, holding a pizza box on each of their hands, chest heaving as if they ran to get there.  
 

hyunjin stares at them. “why are you two here?” he finally manages to get out.  
  


changbin rolls his eyes. “i can’t believe you forgot about our plan!”  
 

“what plan?”  
  


“our xbox’s night and pizza competition kind of plan!,” changbin protest.  
 

chan stares at him in exasperation. “such a brat,” he says but his actions are betraying his words. since a smile is forming on his face, the one which shows off the crinkles by his eye.  
 

“oh right, come in!,” hyunjin says, stepping back and holding the door.

 

 

 

they start playing and continue another two hours after that. chan manages to get his victory three times on a whole combat versus hyunjin but he ends giving up to him the next rounds as hyunjin might have promised to buy him food afterward, but there would be no point in listening to that as all of hwang hyunjin's promises evaporate to nothing eventually. chan knows better and learned that detail about his friend over time but his head isn’t really in the game so he leave it at that. 

he keeps forgetting about the functions, bonus actions and combos of the game characters and has to ask his friends about what to exactly do, he blames it on the fact that they haven’t played in a long while but he knows that that is not all the true. his mind is wandering and there is one topic he keeps coming back to. 

minho. 

minho and how they aren’t spending the night together. 

and he keeps telling himself that it’s just their littles night gatherings’ routine breaking that is keeping him so distracted. 

  
  
  


 

chan ends up sprawled out on the floor, in the living room, next to changbin after hyunjin kicks them both out of the room where they were having their friday nights on his. hyunjin had been apologetic about it but he insists that while the two of them can afford to staying up all night and dealing with chan’s insomnia, he doesn’t get the same luxury.   
  
chan supposes it speaks to their friendship when changbin dutifully follows him out into his living room banishment, pillows in his arms and blanket trailing behind.   
  
changbin is his best friend and before minho, if he’s having a bad night, chan knows he can count on changbin to attempt to keep him company, but chan knows he’s struggling to stay awake for him. he looks over and changbin has his eyes closed.  
 

“you should go to bed.”  
  
  
changbin opens an eye to scoff at him. “no, we do this together, i’m not leaving you alone.”  
  
  
“sorry,” chan says. “i shouldn’t be keeping you up.”  
  
  
“shut up,” changbin answers. “we’re just laying here. just keep talking. i’m listening.”  
    
  
chan stays quiet because he’s trying to pick out a coherent thought out of the jumble of thoughts going through his mind. a question burning on the tip of his tongue that he doesn't really dare to ask but finally he just blurts it out, “isn’t love supposed to be sudden?”  
  
  
changbin’s eyes open wide and he turns his head towards chan. “where is this coming from?”  
  
  
chan shrugs. “i’m just saying. love is supposed to be this big realization, right?”  
  
  
“i guess”, changbin doesn’t look as convinced and asks. “is this about minho?”  
  
  
chan ignores his question. “so when you like someone, you’re supposed to be able to tell when exactly you started liking them, right?”  
  
  
“sometimes?”  
  
  
“what if you can’t pinpoint it? what if it feels like nothing has changed—you’re just hanging out with this person—”  
  
  
“minho,” changbin fills in helpfully.  
  
  
“changbin,” chan glares at him. “so you’re just hanging out with this person and laughing with them and you’re just thinking, ‘this is nice. it’s nice hanging out with—this person.’”  
  
  
__ “minho.”  
  
  
“—and maybe it’s more than just nice? and you realize that maybe you like them, and you’re just… _ there _ .”  
  
  
“there?” changbin raises an eyebrow.  
  
  
“there,” chan repeats. “you’re already at that place where you really like this person—”  
  
  
“minho.”  
  
  
“stop it!,” chan complains, kicking at one of changbin’s ankles.  
  
  
“ __ you  stop. of course you’re talking about minho!, it’s not like you’ve been hanging out with anyone else lately.”  
  


“fine. minho.”  
  
  
“see.” changbin looks smug. “was that so hard? i don’t know what your problem is. it’s just me. it’s so easy to tell whom you like.”

  
  
“but aren’t you supposed to realize when you’re falling for someone? isn’t it weird to just already be there when you didn’t even know you were…travelling there?”

  
  
changbin laughs. “you are so lucky i understand what you’re saying, i swear, chan, your conversational skills get worse everyday.” he laughs some more and rolls away when chan tries to hit him. “okay, stop, stop.” he stills chan’s hands before he pushes them away. “i don’t think there’s a right way to fall in love. sometimes it takes an epiphany but it doesn’t always have to be sucker punch to the face. sometimes it’s easier. it’s usually not a conscious thing. people don’t choose to fall in love with someone, it just happens.”  


  
chan wrinkles his nose. “you’re being cheesy.”  
  
  
“why?” changbin laughs again. “because i don’t think falling in love involves one specific moment where you go, ‘wow, i love you’? isn’t it better when it’s easier? when you just reach that level of being comfortable with each other without even thinking about it?”  
  
  
chan gives him a strange look. “so, who do  _ you _  like?”  
  
  
changbin rolls his eyes. “no one, i’m just smarter than you.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next sat ‘two kids room’ ep it’s minchan people!


	7. under this light, you and me, write the same thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chan couldn’t help the slow and sincere smile that spreads on his face. he didn’t look away from minho even on the darkness of the room, the only light coming from the bright moon hanging on the dark canvas of the night sky.
> 
> the vanilla and ginger from minho’s cologne reaches chan’s nostrils taking over his senses. 
> 
> minho is really, really beautiful.

 

 

chan puts on his shoes, and grabs a few things before walking out his apartment and into the cool night’s air.

nightly walks gets chan thinking, sometimes they are pleasants thoughts, appreciation for little details but most of the time the thoughts he has while walking after the sun has taken her rays out the sky and won’t come again for another twelve hours are of a more melancholic nature.

his building wasn’t too far from the convenience store; just enough for one to enjoy a calming walk on the way there. except, chan is anything but calm after his night talk with changbin. he’s with so many thoughts on mind and things he wishes he had said and would have said, and so so many things he shouldn’t have said, and it all feels too confusing. 

he speeds up his pace.

once the store comes into sight, chan breaks into a sprint. he stops at the door, and picks up junk food and sweets since he’ll visit minho again– as he does every night. 

 

feeling a little stuffy in his work clothes, chan changes into something more comfortable after arriving his dorm.  
  
when he comes in, minho is already comfortable on the couch, their late dinner laid out on the coffee table. his brown doe eyes narrowing the tv, and little stands of brown hair fall into his face in just a way that seems messy and unplanned and yet looks so effortlessly perfect. 

minho is really pretty; like breathtakingly so. the kind of pretty that makes the whole world stop for a moment and and if this were a highschool romance drama this would be the scene where everything happens in slow motion while music plays in the background and cherry blossom petals fly across the screen. chan can feel a blush creeping onto his cheeks and he feels stupid by how he is reacting.  

“so, what are we watching? boring documentary, sad love story, or action flick?” it might be chan's hope playing it up, but it seems like minho smile is a little bigger this night.

he has probably rubbed his eye because his makeup is smudged and that rolled up fabric half shoved behind the couch cushion must be his jacket because he is only wearing a long sleeve plain shirt. 

“ok, i choose,” minho decides, grabbing the remoter with one hand and a can soda with the other. “come on, don't stand there. it’s weird.”

chan scoffs, and taking a step towards the couch, towards minho feels almost like stepping into an unknown territory at the moment, he curls his toes in the carpet and flops on the other side of the couch, looking at minho out of the corner of his eye. 

 

  
“you did not say that,” minho says, lips parting in a slight smile, “take it back.”  
  
“i’m not taking anything back,” chan replies, sticking out his tongue. he covers his face with his hands, eyes peeking at minho through the gaps between his fingers. “it’s true that you’re a wimp. you get scared during horror movies.”  
  
“well the only reason you don’t get scared is because you fall asleep when we’re watching them. i bet you’d be terrified if you actually keeps your eyes open.”  
  
“who says i fall asleep, i’m insomniac!’ chan protests, he lowered his hands, eyeing minho with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “seeing that it’s such a fine saturday night, how about we watch a horror movie now and i’ll prove just how much of a man i am?”  
  
minho deadpanned. ”you’re a cry baby,” minho makes a sound that is half laughter half snort. a small pfft kind of noise that makes him scrunch up his nose in the most adorable way.  
  
chan gets off the couch, heading straight for the drawers full of dvds. but he didn’t forget to flick his hand at minho as he walked past him, hitting the boy square on his arm.  
  
“i’m still a man.”  
  
chan turns back with the perfect dvd pinched between his fingers. it was rated as one of the scariest movies of all time. the other boy’s smile was bright and contagious when chan crawled onto the couch, joining him. he spreads his arms mockingly, smile now steering towards obnoxious.  
  
“will our baby be afraid?” minho asks with a bit of teasing in both the cheeky smile he is flashing and his tone of voice.  
  
chan floppies down next to him, stretching his body along the couch. he snorts loudly, hitting minho’s arm with the hardcover of the dvd. chan chuckle is to mask the fact that his mind is racing a million miles on hour while his heart is beating out of his chest. the way minho called him baby definitely didn’t send shivers down his back and make his toes curl with anticipation. a simple and small word shouldn’t get chan so flustered, and yet the second the word leaves minho’s mouth the world stops turning for a second.  
  
“go play the movie,” chan prompts.  
  
“you go.”  
  
one glare from minho and is all it takes for chan to get up to his feet with the disc in hand, groaning loudly. he slides the smooth disc into the dvd player, eyes narrowed when he turns back. 

the cushion beside minho dips with chan’s weight as he reaches for him, grabbing one of minho’s skinny wrists, his fingers curled around it loosely. minho's grin grows this time as he didn’t try to pry off chan’s hand. his fingers felt perfect hooked around his wrist. chan bends forward to grab the remote control, and he didn’t let go of minho’s hand. “let’s watch it then.”  
  
truth be told chan feel a little disappointed when minho relinquishes his grip on his wrist, but then it was only so he could get up to turn off the lights. the entire room fall into darkness, save the dim light coming from the flat-screen television and the soft moonlight seeping through the curtain blinds. 

chan focuses on keeping his eyes open. horror movies were nothing to him – he easily see through the layers of convincing make-up and ridiculously predictable plots. minho, however, was a lot less brave, despite his words.

  
long, slender fingers weaves themselves through the blond tangle of chan’s hair as he leans his head on minho’s shoulder in the darkness, one hand playing with chan’s hair, the other moving to gently caressing the side of his temples.  
  
they’re only thirty minutes into the movie when chan feels his eyelids getting heavier and heavier. he fights to keep them open, frowning as hard as he could and even pinching himself, but the way minho is stroking his hair is only lulling him to sleep and he wasn’t about to ask him to stop because it felts like the nicest thing in the world. 

he feels like he is sitting on a vast, open field, enjoying the summer breeze and the fragrance of newly bloomed flowers. 

it is minho, really, who wakes him up fully. but chan had also been trying to stay awake for that moment. minho let out a terrified screech, his fingers stilling, still caught between chan’s blondes locks. chan doesn’t even try to muffle his laughter, he just laughs heartily, tilting his head back so he could look at minho as he is leaning on his shoulder.  
  
“such a coward,” he teases, confidence gained back. he can’t help his snicker when minho lets out a deep sigh when a high-peak scream is on scene. “are you scared?”  
  
“of course not!”  
  
“we can stop watching this now as long as you admit you’re scared.”  
  
“but i’m not.”  
  
“minho,” chan insists, “i know you are scared.”  
  
minho suddenly turns to look at him. “i’m not scared,” he says, before pulling a face, “i’m terrified.”  
  
it is amazing how minho has the ability to coax laughter so effortlessly out of chan, how he always knows the right things to say to make him feel like everything is alright. 

they fall quiet, not saying anything more, and chan likes their silences, they’re comfortable.

chan couldn’t help the slow and sincere smile that spreads on his face. 

he didn’t look away from minho even as he stretches his arm forward to grab the remote control and switches off the television. and the room stays dark, the only light coming from the bright moon hanging on the dark canvas of the night sky. 

he speaks up suddenly, his voice changed. “ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?” 

minho turns to him, puzzled. “what?” 

chan’s eyes are fixed on the soft moonlight seeping through the curtain blinds casting shadows over the balcony glass doors. “pumbaa,” he says, his voice getting higher. “i don’t wonder, i know.” 

minho blinks. “what are you doing?” 

“they’re fireflies,” chan continues. “fireflies that uh…got stuck up in that big…blueish-black…thing.” he switches his voice to the first one. “oh gee, i always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.” 

minho laughs sweet and loud when he figures out what chan is doing. “pumbaa,” he joins in. “with you, everything’s gas.” 

chan turns to him and smiles. “simba, what do you think?”

minho has to struggle to remember the lines. “well, somebody once told me that the great kings of the past are up there, watching over us.”

chan raises an eyebrow. “your disney reciting skills are really superb,” he whispers before switching into his timon voice. “you mean a bunch of royal dead guys are watching us?” 

minho chuckles before he leans in and he’s right in the periphery of chan’s vision and nothing is more vively against the feeling he gets when he catches minho’s eyes and he has the prettiest expression on, with his eyes impossibly large and bright while his mouth contorts, “thanks.”

minho’s fingers are trailing down the side of his face combing the strands of chan’s hair again. 

chan hums in contentment and closes his eyes ,surrendering himself fully. he feels the hand threading lightly through his hair and pretty soon he can feel a thumb barely brushing over his forehead, smoothing out the wrinkle lines and almost gently caressing the sides of his temples, alternately tracing his cheek bones and skimming over his long eyelashes. the perfume from his delicate cologne reaches chan’s nostrils taking over his senses. 

“minho.”  
  
chan open his eyes, only to find minho eyes fixed right on him, gaze intense and heavy. somehow that alone is enough to prevent chan from functioning normally, sucked in his breath. 

minho is really, really beautiful.  
  
“chan,” minho mutters quietly.

chan realises that the backgrounders sounds stopped strumming a long time ago and what grows louder in the night it might just be the sound of the blood rushing up into his head to colour his cheeks rosy as minho is totally facing him in the darkness of the room. 

minho’s giggles reaches his ears and chan catches himself smiling at it. it’s the sweetest sound ever. he can’t ever imagine that there will come a day when he’ll listen to minho giggle and he won’t feel _amazed_. 

minho laughs and he listens as the sounds of it marvels him, chan could hear it for hours and hours. only minho’s full lips slightly parted in a silent word takes him out of thoughts. "what?”

"why are you looking at me like that?,” minho repeats blinking, and chan startles, caught in the act. the curves of minho’s lips and nose and the shadows around his eyes are gorgeous, so tempting. 

minho’s long and curves lashes are chan’s personal ninth wonder of the world. 

and he can’t resist tracing them all with a finger. up his cheekbone, across his eyebrow, the corners of his eyes, the tiny mole on his nose. “nothing, i’m just thinking.”

“about what?,” minho hums.

chan may have been okay at acting before, but he’s terrible at controlling himself this late at night. there’s only a brief moment of silent deliberation before he muses. 

“that i could fight the world just to have you in my arms.” chan hears himself blurt out before he can stop it. for a moment he almost follows that up by clasping his hand in front of his mouth to make him look even more of a fool but he manages to stop himself before making the situation even more awkward for himself.  
  
his words runs clear and loud in minho’s head, chan could hear his own heartbeat above all the noises, but minho focuses solely on his words. his voice sending tingles down his back and as a light pink flushing starts covering minho’s face. 

minho is laughing quietly now and it makes chan feel lightheaded and insecure at the same time. part of him wishes the ground would just open up and swallow him whole, the other part is silently hoping that this moment never passes. that he can just stay there hearing nothing but the sound of minho’s soft laughter. 

there’s a little sound of surprise when chan goes right ahead and grasp minho’s fingers with his, “i guess what i’m trying to say is that i think i’m in love with you.”

“chan–”  
  
“you don’t have to give me an answer by tonight,” chan lets a contented sigh escape from his mouth, gazing fondly at him. “you don’t even have to give me an answer at all if you don’t want to. i just wanted to takes it out off me.”

minho’s laughing again, a bit loud and bubbly and absolutely lovely. and even though he is probably laughing _about chan_ , he can’t help the way his heart starts racing again. chan must have looked uncomfortable because minho stops laughing abruptly and tilts his head to the side as if he is thinking about it.

it’s all minho choice, he can take it or leave it. but he thinks he already made his decision when he spend that first night with chan on the balcony all those months ago. minho wants this, wants it so much it burns inside his chest. 

he starts smiling, and it might be chan's hope playing it up, but it seems like minho’s smile is a little bigger, or maybe a little brighter.

with a deep breath minho threads his fingers in chan’s wrist while a quiet incredible soft laughter tumbles past his lips as a light pink flushing covers his ears. 

he’s timidly chuckling, and it’s so cute that chan should have known it comes from minho and recognizing it miles away; except it’s so accurately expressing his outspoken feeling that he isn’t really sure the bubby sound came from minho’s but him. 

as minho places his hands over chan’s, intertwining their fingers tightly together, chan can't even care about nothing more. 

he squeezes them back and minho grins wide, he is smiling so _bright_ , bigger than his smiles have been of late and he looks even more adorable than before.

chan is positively sure his cheeks are burning when minho reaches out to hook his fingers around his shirt collar, pulling him down until their lips touch. minho’s lips are so soft and so warm against his, and chan has never feel so alive. 

it only took a second for them to exchange bemused glances before chan wrestles minho until his chest is presses against his own, squeezing him in a hug.  
  
“and i guess what i'm trying to say is,” minho whispers in the gap between their lips when they breathe,“i think i love you too.” 

and chan just laughs of joy into him as he leans back in for more. the kisses left him feeling light-hearted as minho tastes like he’s made up of constellations inside just like he is on the outside.

although they were really nothing compared to what they would surely be in the future; because he's going to make sure that minho’s lips would be his and only his for a long long time. 

chan pulls him up so he could properly hold him and wraps him into him, his arms are tight around minho’s waist, tightly as he would hug his pillow after a long day out at work. chan lifts his head and looks at minho for a second before leaning in to peck him on the side of his temples.

“i thought i lost you,” he mumbles and minho doesn’t know if he is supposed to hear that but it doesn’t matter anymore when chan closes the short distance between them and presses their lips softly together once again.

chan leans on minho’s shoulder, and turns so that their sides are aligned and he can thread his fingers in minho’s palms. he feels delicate skin and his thumb runs over his knuckles and the soft skin of his fingers, and his smile grows a tiny bit, happiness sparkling in the dark depths of his brown eyes when minho squeezes back before he buries his face into the flawless curve of minho’s neck. 

minho sags into him and he begins to laugh, and he laughs and laughs and it tickles chan down. 

minho’s laugh is loud and it’s filling chan’s heart up fully. 

he scoops chan into him and leans in to place a sweet light kiss to his forehead. “you are really lame.”  

chan smiles sliding his hand back under minho’s waist holding him tight, “you think it’s cute.”

“i do,” he mumbles, leaning his head on chan’s shoulder.

and as chan watches minho beaming beautifully he feels brave and happy and foolish and finally, finally, at home. 

 

 

-

 

 

chan slides his hand under the green pastel hoodie minho has started wearing to bed, and runs his fingers up his spine. minho sighs in contentment at the caresses as chan’s fingers travel up his spine and come to a stop right below his shoulder blade.   
  
this is what chan does now in a sleepless night.

he used to need to actually  _see_  the beauty marks on minho’s back to map them all out. it had been relatively easy during summer, but he has it all committed to memory now.   
  
if he closes his eyes, he can see them behind his eyelids, like he’s charting the stars except he doesn’t need to look out the balcony for stars, because the ones on minho’s back are better.  
  
that’s how he falls asleep if he’s still awake when minho drifts off on nights and the insomnia is his only company. chan maps out the beauty marks on his back with his fingers, as if he can feel them, even though all he really feels is smooth skin. he knows they’re there and it’s better than counting stars or sheep.   
  
if he’s still awake after he’s done, he starts over. 

eventually he falls asleep. 

with minho’s hair tickling his nose, and with little stars beneath his fingertips. 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so sooo much for reading&leaving kudos and also commenting and _specially _for sticking with me on this long ass ride!!! love you lots💘💘__
> 
>  
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>  
> 
> _(also, guys! we were waiting patiently for the minchan two kids room ep, and wow i feel blessed on this day!_
> 
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> 
> _“to: soonie doongie and dori’s father_  
>  from: berry’s father”
> 
>  
> 
> _i adore them, that little thing made my heart warmed)_

**Author's Note:**

> am i talking again about minchan's love and minho’s cats? hell yeah.
> 
> honestly, i can’t spell lee minho without soonie, doongie and dori on it.
> 
> (i’m soft for him and his ending and flaming love for his cats, they save him and i’m all mushy inside for that fact. sue me.)


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